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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29362626">Put A Gun In My Hand</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roger_That_Sarge/pseuds/Roger_That_Sarge'>Roger_That_Sarge</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Formula 1 RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternative Universe - Mafia, Conflicting Feelings, Detective AU, Detective Lando Norris, Gun Violence, Inappropriate Humor, M/M, Mafia AU, Mafia boss Lance Stroll, Mentions of drugs, Slow Burn, depictions of violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 04:35:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>47,932</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29362626</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roger_That_Sarge/pseuds/Roger_That_Sarge</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Lando had worked tirelessly to get promoted as a detective on Squad Nine, one of the best crime squads within the city. Every waking moment had been spent with this as his goal, and now he was finally here. Newly promoted, new partner, and a chance to prove himself.</p><p>Everything had been going to plan until one chance meeting.</p><p>Now he has everything to lose.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Charles Leclerc &amp; Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon &amp; Lance Stroll, Lando Norris &amp; Carlos Sainz Jr, Lando Norris/Lance Stroll, Nico Hulkenberg &amp; Kevin Magnussen, Pierre Gasly &amp; Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly/Charles Leclerc</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>82</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Trigger warning for use of knife as torture</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lando’s fingers shook as he straightened his tie. The pale blue material catching the florescent light of the bathroom he was in as he plucked at non-existent hair on his jacket.</p><p>Hands patted his waist, checking for his badge and wallet, making sure everything was in order.</p><p>He straightened up, looking at himself in the cracked precinct mirror, flecks of dirt distorting the image that stared back at him.</p><p>At 25 he was due to be the youngest detective on the squad that he had been assigned to upon graduating from the specialised program that advanced his career from uniformed officer to detective.</p><p>He had fast tracked his whole career, his education and training to reach this point. To make detective and be able to put his skills to use, to protect those who were vulnerable to the crime that ran rampant in their city.</p><p>It hadn’t been an easy climb. There was little time for friends when racing to graduate early, attending University course before eighteen to fight for placement with one of the best units for his basic training before being fast tracked through detective courses to reach this point.</p><p>There had been those who had tried to trip him, discredit his work because his face was too youthful, his body too small for the physical aspects but Lando had fought tooth and nail, climbing bloody, and bruised until he had emerged victorious. A king among men with teams reaching out before he had even exited the program.</p><p>It had all been worth it to get here, to work within the biggest Criminal Investigation Department, to be a member of Captain Horner’s team dealing with some of the worst crimes throughout the city Lando had called home.</p><p>If only he could shake the anxiety inside him, the nerves that told him this was a mistake. That he would walk into the headquarters for the team and Horner would take one look at his boyish face, his curls, and big eyes, and burst into laughter. That like so many before him, Lando would be underestimated and dismissed, busted back down to the uniformed officer’s division, or reassigned to cybercrimes for his technical skills.</p><p>He could easily fit in among the glowing screens, hacking his way passed some of the most complicated systems and encryptions. Protecting in a way that required him not to be in the field, providing support for the detectives and agents on the ground, but it didn’t sit right within his soul. He knew he was more than his technical skills, and he had proved it time and time again with his record setting drills, scores and his busts as a uniformed officer.</p><p>‘You can do this’, Lando muttered, staring into his reflection’s eyes, seeing determination and steel behind the ever-shifting blue green, ‘You deserve to be here’.</p><p>With one last nod at himself, another quick check that he was dressed appropriately and had everything needed for his first morning, Lando took a deep breath and exit the bathroom with twenty minutes spare until the official start of his first shift on squad nine.</p><p>The elevator ride to the fifth floor of the building was quiet, shared only with a harried looking uniformed officer. His eyes nervous and shifting as they counted down the floors, constantly fixing the buttons on the sleeves of their uniform top.</p><p>It made Lando smile a little as he gazed at the floor, trying to avoid the other seeing it. At least he wasn’t the only one left nervous by the prospects of wandering to floor six where the squad nine had the entire floor dedicated to their team, including tech rooms, interrogation cells and equipment rooms.</p><p>It was the most notorious and well-run squad in the history of the city. Started years before under the division Chief Marko, and although he had since been promoted to Chief and his protegee Horner had taken control, he played a very active role in the squad.</p><p>His office was still located off the main bullpen for the squad to keep him close to all the action.</p><p>The ding of the elevator saw the uniformed officer jump, swallowing nervously as they nodded at Lando who gestured for them to exit first.</p><p>He watched as he stepped out, tracking the officer hesitating outside Marko’s office, looking terrified, and clutching the files tightly in their hands before knocking.</p><p>He waited till they disappeared before allowing himself one last moment to panic, to swallow nervously and take a calming breath before heading to the doors emblazoned with Squad Nine across them in gold glossy letters on frosted glass.</p><p>He expected the moment to feel bigger. To walk into a room where eyes instantly landed on him, but the bullpen was empty, desk neatly organised with placards displaying names. Dim lights were on, coffee mugs in the kitchen area neatly aligned, and the only sound was the coffee maker buzzing in the background as Lando let the door close.</p><p>One desk stood out from the others. The surface devoid of pictures or paperwork, chair neatly tucked into the desk. He felt his throat catch at the sigh of the placard facing him as he stepped further into the bull pen, ‘Det. Lando Norris’.</p><p>‘Ah, I know that look’, a voice chuckled from beside him, ‘I was the same way when I started as detective way back in the day’.</p><p>Lando turned, offering a shy smile to Captain Horner who was leaning in the doorway of his office, watching Lando with interest and a smile on his face.</p><p>‘It just seems too good to be true, Sir’, Lando answered honestly, stepping forward to take the hand offered to him as Horner laughed.</p><p>‘From what I have read about you Norris, it’s well earned and deserved’, Horner smiled, clapping him on the shoulder as he released his hand.</p><p>‘Thank you, Sir, but really I just worked like everyone else’, Lando shifted his feet, uncomfortable with the praise.</p><p>Horner snorted, clapping him on the shoulder again before walking passed him to the small offside kitchenette and grabbing two cups to fill with coffee.</p><p>‘Nonsense’, Horner stated as he fixed the coffees, both black, ‘I’ve seen your scores, your record, Norris you didn’t get to this Squad by just doing your job, you stood out and that was enough to catch Marko and my eyes. You wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think we could use you on the team’.</p><p>Lando felt an involuntary flush on his cheeks. He had never learned how to handle compliments or praise despite training on how to keep reactions to minimum during some of the more complex training courses dealing with hostage scenarios, negotiations, and face to face situations with active armed suspects.</p><p>‘Now, let’s take these into my office’, Horner suggested, striding across the bullpen, ‘Just a few little kinks to work out for admin and a quick discussion about the nature of the cases we work before you can meet the squad and your partner. Don’t worry, Captain Brown advised me on how you like your coffee. I think the man was devastated to see you slip away from him’.</p><p>Lando followed as told, folding his jacket over the arm of the chair Horner indicated him to sit in and sipping at bitter coffee that he hated. He never had gotten round to telling Zak, as his old Captain had insisted on being called, that he actually hated coffee. It had been three years and Lando still hadn’t adjusted to the taste of coffee on his tongue or the aftertaste it left.</p><p>Still, it was a small price to pay for being able to sit across from Christian Horner, the man who had caught the Northeast Gang during his rookie year and brought down some of the worst gangs and murderers throughout his career on Squad Nine. He was legend among the rookies and other precincts, his detectives the envy of all at the various training courses and conferences.</p><p>He sipped at his coffee, nodding attentively, signing contracts, and following Horner’s explanation of the different health and safety protocols despite knowing them all off by heart from his previous station from all his spare time. He hadn’t gotten along well with the other uniformed officers, all of them older and threatened by the baby-faced rookie who outperformed them without being smug about it. The lack of smugness only seemed to fuel their annoyance with him. He had even heard take of them celebrating his leaving.</p><p>‘As you know’, Horner fixed him with a cold stare as Lando glanced up from reviewing more HR documents, ‘This squad is tightknit. We deal with horrific crimes, lots of gang and mafia related business and things that will make your skin crawl. If you don’t fit in with my boys, I will reassign you’.</p><p>Lando nodded numbly, feeling the nervousness flair in his chest again, but he was determined to make it work. He had to make it work or everything had been for nothing. He refused to be busted back to uniform or cybercrimes.</p><p>‘Understood Sir’, he replied softly, setting the last of the paperwork on the table for Horner to sort into the file for HR.</p><p>Horner nodded, straightening the pieces of paper into a pile before sliding them into a nondescript brown folder. He stood, an air of authority about him as he surveyed his office and looked Lando over once more.</p><p>He tried not to squirm as those cold eyes didn’t match the friendly smile the Captain offered him before speaking once more.</p><p>‘Alright Norris, time to meet the team’, Horner gestured towards the door, ‘Treat them like family, because this Squad will become your life once you step back into that bullpen’.</p><p>Lando stood, quickly wiping his hands on his slacks as Horner stood before him at the door, hiding Lando behind his frame unintentionally and giving him one last moment to compose himself before leading him to his possible slaughter.</p><p>Zak had been a friendly Captain, always making sure Lando was okay being the youngest in the station, but somehow Lando didn’t think the same would happen here.</p><p>It was clear from Horner’s tone that this was sink or swim, and it was time to swim as Horner opened the door, voices filtering into the office.</p><p>‘Captain!’, voices called cheerful, but respectful in tone as Horner stepped out, Lando following him.</p><p>‘Alright Squad Nine’, Horner announced, ‘Meet our rookie, Detective Lando Norris. I had to fight a fair few Captains for him, so don’t break him too soon. Sainz, Norris is your responsibility now, introduce him to everyone and get him briefed on your cases’.</p><p>A round of ‘Yes Sir’s filled the bullpen and with one last pat on the shoulder, Lando was left looking at five curious pairs of eyes as they glanced up from where they leaned or sat around their desks.</p><p>‘Lando, yes?’, one of the detectives smiled softly, his voice accented as he walked forward offering his hand.</p><p>Lando nodded, shaking the man’s hand, and noticing how soft the skin was.</p><p>‘I’m Carlos Sainz Jr, I’ll be your new partner’, Carlos squeezed his hand before letting it go, throwing an arm around Lando’s shoulder and pulling him to the centre of the bullpen, ‘And this is the rest of the squad, they’re all assholes’.</p><p>‘Speak for yourself Sainz’, a tall blond man snorted before offering Lando a cheeky smile, ‘Nico Hulkenberg, but you can call me Hulk like the other pretty boys do’.</p><p>Lando felt his face flush as Carlos laughed beside him and Nico threw him a wink, lost for words.</p><p>‘Ignore him, I do’, a soft voice came from a smaller blond man, tattoos visible from where his shirt sleeves were rolled up, ‘Kevin Magnussen, unfortunately partnered with that asshole who is going to end up in a workplace harassment program one day’.</p><p>‘Hey, I will not’, Nico retorted, tossing a wad of paper at Kevin’s head only for the other to catch it and chuck it back at him, hitting Nico dead between the eyes.</p><p>‘They always do this, it’s like flirting for them’, Carlos chuckled, rolling his eyes as the two detectives let out noises of protest, before returning to arguing amongst themselves as Nico sat on the edge of Kevin’s desk, reviewing case files.</p><p>Lando turned his gaze away from the bickering blondes, making a mental note to befriend Kevin. His eyes landed on the remaining two detectives, both working away, one glancing up shyly every so often to were Lando and Carlos stood.</p><p>After catching his eyes, the detective smiled awkwardly, offering him a stiff wave.</p><p>‘Daniil Kyvat’, his voice was low, and he seemed quiet. Lando offered him a little wave back, earning a flash of a smile before eyes returned to the work before him.</p><p>The other dark-haired detective never looked up, typing away furiously and ignoring the bickering from the other duo and Lando himself.</p><p>Carlos shrugged, leading Lando towards their desk that were pressed together so they would be facing each other while working and gesturing for Lando to take a seat at his desk.</p><p>‘That’s Mark Webber’, Carlos spoke lowly, perching at the edge of Lando’s desk and pretending to help him get sorted with everything on his desk, ‘He won’t warm up to you until you’ve been here three years, personal trauma with a previous partner. We’ll fill you in at the bar one night’.</p><p>‘Did he die?’, Lando asked cautiously, eyes flickering to the dark-haired man, tracing the stern lines of his face and his unbreakable focus on the files and computer before him.</p><p>‘Worse’, Carlos sighed, patting Lando’s shoulder before moving towards his desk, plucking a file from the top of his pile, and passing it to Lando, ‘Read this. It’s our current case. Drug exchange planned for the next few days between the Alonso gang and one of the branches of the mafia operating within the city’.</p><p>Lando nodded, skimming the file quickly, grabbing a post it notes from the supplies on his desk and noting down little details that stood out, ignoring how his new partner hovered over his shoulder, watching everything he was noting.</p><p>‘There’s no name for the party that the Alonso gang are meeting’, Lando questioned, eyes flickering between his new partner who had moved closer to him once more, hand landing on his shoulder and thumb brushing the little curls at the nape of his neck, making Lando shift uncomfortably.</p><p>‘Yes, we do not know this branch, but I have a few suspects for it including- ‘, Carlos began but was cut off by three identical groans, and some paper balls being chucked at them from three different directions.</p><p>‘Not this theory again mate, give it a rest’, Nico groaned, tossing another paper ball as Kevin grinned from his desk. Daniil’s shoulders shook with silent laughter.</p><p>Lando couldn’t help but grin, a small laugh escaping him as Carlos glared at his teammates, tossing one of the paper balls back towards Nico only for Kevin to catch it mid-air and set it back in Nico’s hands.</p><p>‘What theory?’, Lando laughed, breaking free from Carlos’s hand as he twisted his chair around to face the other two detectives.</p><p>Kevin rolled his eyes as Carlos sighed heavily, muttering to himself in Spanish as he headed to slump down into his own desk chair.</p><p>‘Mr Conspiracy nut over there has a theory about the Strolls being the main drug runners and mafia overlords of the city’, Kevin smiled, disbelief clear on his face.</p><p>‘The finance family, the one that’s involved in like loads of community projects and funding underprivileged schools?’, Lando tossed a confused look at his partner whose face was getting darker and darker with stormy anger by the second.</p><p>‘Don’t be fooled’, Carlos scoffed, flicking open a case file that matched the one he had handed to Lando moments before, ‘The Strolls are up to some shady shit, and you’ll all be sorry when I finally get the evidence I need’.</p><p>‘You’ve been saying that for three years Carlos,’ Nico laughed, tossing the paper ball into the trash, fist pumping when it went in, ‘Yet you have never found a shred of evidence, just focus on the Alonso gang like Horner told you to and back off the Strolls’.</p><p>The bullpen settled down after that, the only sound whispers between partners, the clacking of keyboards and the occasional curse from Carlos. Or at least Lando thought they were curses.</p><p>He turned his attention back to the file, analysing information, and trying to look for clues in the informants report about who exactly the members of Alonso’s gang were meeting. Allowing a little smile to emerge as he thought of Carlos’s wild theory, imagining Chloe Stroll, CEO of Stroll Enterprises, in her designer suits and dresses, moving drugs and ordering executions of cartel members before shaking his mind free from thought.</p><p>This was his first chance to prove himself, to prove to Horner that he was the right choice for this team,</p><p>Instead of focusing on the Strolls and his new team, he let himself get lost in the information, nerves disappearing and that calm focus settling in his bone as he got to work.</p><p>                                                            *</p><p>Lance relaxed in his chair, legs crossed and humming to himself as he picked at his nails with the butterfly knife Chloe had gifted him when he turned eighteen.</p><p>The groans and begging were background noise, a consequence of the job, rather than an annoyance after so many years of study and working his way up the ranks.</p><p>His father had been adamant about Lance and Chloe earning their titles. Earning the loyalty of the men and women that worked with them and for them. He had sat them down when they were only kids, warning them that while they carried the family name, that didn’t mean they were owed respect. It had to be earned.</p><p>It had taken years to reach this point of trust. For his father to step back, allow Chloe to take her place as the head of the family and Lance to establish his own role as his sisters second in command. He had taken every blow with unflinching determination, outperformed those from other branches of the family attempting to edge in on the main branch territory and business.</p><p>Lance had worked hard, training on how to run the business and how to hide in plain sight. Keep a clean image to protect the family and their investments. He had earned enough trust to hand pick those that worked with him, his own little family.</p><p>Every year spent learning multiple languages, learning how to balances blades and dismantle guns within a time limit while others his age were riding bikes and playing football or hockey had been worth it. Each bruise and cut, every scar from a failed operation had earned him the respect he needed to survive in the family business.</p><p>No one could accuse you of taking over the street level dealings and international trades from last name only when you had bled beside them on the grunt work. No one questioned your loyalty when you took bullets for your people, respect those that had been in the game longer.</p><p>Lance had fought his way to his position, earning every ounce of reputation from the ground rather than his name, and his people stood by him for this.</p><p>When working within the demanding world of the mafia, your name only took you so far.</p><p>The groans gave way to screams and sobs, drawing Lance’s attention from his nails and inner thoughts to the scene before him.</p><p>He couldn’t help the satisfied grin emerging on his face, leaning back in his chair and crossing his hands behind his head, taking it all in.</p><p>‘Please, please just let me go’, the man sobbed, head stretched back where Esteban had his gloved hand fisted in his hair, shallow cuts tracing his cheeks and neck as Esteban analysed where to place the next one.</p><p>‘Oh Benny’, Lance smirked, shifting to lean forward, elbows perched on his black jean clad thighs, resting his chin on his joined hands, ‘     You know we can’t do that’.</p><p>The man sobbed, the sound choking off as Esteban dragged his knife across his collar bone. Fresh blood oozing from the wound, staining his already ruined shirt. The sobs turned to screams as Esteban smiled, grabbing salt, and rubbing it in the open wounds across his collar bone and neck.</p><p>‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please, please forgive me’, Benny begged, choking on pained whimpers as Esteban pressed a gloved thumb covered in salt into one of the deeper wounds.</p><p>‘Oh Benny’, Lance sighed, standing, and tugging his own gloves from the pockets of his leather jacket, ‘I want to forgive you, I really do’.</p><p>‘Please’, Benny whimpered softly.</p><p>Esteban pulled another pained sound from him as he carved little lines all across Benny’s restrained hands and fingers. Making sure to drag the blade over the knuckles, ensuring that each time Benny flexed them unintentionally in pain, the cuts split back open, dripping blood onto the plastic sheeting on the floor.</p><p>‘Look at how beautifully my friend is treating you Benny, and yet you still complain?’, Lance clicked his tongue, flexing his own hands both to tease the bleeding man and to stretch the leather of his gloves.</p><p>‘After everything we have done for him’, Esteban smiled sweetly, lifting his blade to eye it before wiping the blood from it, setting it aside and considering his tools set out on the table next to him.</p><p>‘We took him in, gave him a home, a family, a job’, Lance smirked, walking over to Esteban, and plucking the blade he had gifted Esteban for his birthday from the table, ‘And here we are. With Benny running to our opposition, selling information to the highest bidders, to the cops’.</p><p>‘I didn’t, I swear’, Benny cried, tears streaking through the dry blood on his cheeks, giving them a rusty colour that Lance admired in the light as he threaded his fingers into Benny’s dirty blonde hair, yanking it backwards to expose his throat as Esteban slid his knife under Benny’s shirt, tearing it free from his body.</p><p>‘Right there Este, his tattoo’, Lance smiled, moving a hand to wrap around Benny’s throat and pet his fingers gently across Benny’s hair, ‘He doesn’t deserve to wear the mark’.</p><p>Esteban nodded, winking at Benny before dragging the knife across his skin, tracing the point over the black lines of the Stroll crest inked into his ribs. The intricate design of the knife plunging into the rose, snake curling from the hilt of the knife, disappearing behind the rose and remerging on the other side, crossing over the tip of the knife. It was a beautiful piece in black ink, shading creating a realistic image of the rose and snake.</p><p>Blood began to drip as Esteban dug deeper, tracing the outline of the tattoo, a warning before the final strike to come.</p><p>Esteban tilted the knife, running a thumb over the tattoo and smearing the blood while grinning at Lance. He pulled the skin taunt and began to edge the blade under the skin, Benny bodies jerking, pained noise trapped under the pressure of Lance’s hand tightening on his throat as Esteban cut the tattoo slowly from his ribs.</p><p>‘It’s okay Benny, shush’, Lance whispered into Benny’s ear, hand still stroking his hair, Benny’s tears trickling over his hand on his throat, ‘Be a good boy Benny and maybe we’ll let you live’.</p><p>Benny tried to scream, fingers digging into the arms of the chair, nails breaking into the wood. Yet Esteban never stopped, peeling the skin from his ribs as calmly and professionally as if he was simply peeling an apple.</p><p>Lance began to hum a lullaby softly, something his mother had sung to him and Chloe as children, to Esteban when he had joined them and couldn’t sleep.</p><p>The choking scream and tears died to whimpers, Benny’s eyes wide, pupils blown in pain, tears streaming down his face as Lance rubbed his thumb across his jaw as Esteban served the last bit of the tattoo from his ribs, leaving a bloody, oozing wound behind where it used to be.</p><p>Lance removed his hand from Benny’s throat, the man no longer having the ability to move. His head remaining tilted backwards, hazy eyes finding Lance’s as each breath brought him pain as his lungs expanded, pushing at the skin that was no longer there.</p><p>‘Can…Can I go?’, Benny sobbed, ‘Please, you said I could go’.</p><p>Lance chuckled softly as Esteban smirked, moving away from Benny to clean his knife before tidying away his tools, giving Lance and Benny privacy.</p><p>‘Oh Benny’, Lance sighed, pressing a kiss to Benny’s sweaty forehead, ‘Not even you can be that stupid’.</p><p> </p><p>Before Benny could reply, Lance was twirling his butterfly knife between his fingers as straightened up, letting his brown eyes meet the pained blue ones begging him to stop. Benny opened his mouth to speak, but all that came was the gurl of blood welling in his throat as Lance twisted his knife into the back of his neck, jerking it across to sever the spinal column, cutting the oesophagus from the back.</p><p>Before Benny could register the pain, he was dead. Choking on his own blood as the life drained from his eyes.</p><p>His blood dripped over Lance’s gloved hands as he twisted the knife back out.</p><p>‘Why does it always have to be messy?’, Lance complained, scrunching his nose at the sight of blood dripping onto his boots as Esteban rolled his eyes, simply plucking the knife from his friend’s hand to wipe it down.</p><p>‘Because you saw Jenson twirling that butterfly knife around his fingers when we were kids and decided you wanted to train with knives because, ‘We will look so badass Este’’. Esteban snorted, tossing his friend a rag to wipe down his boots.</p><p>Lance huffed, making his way back to his chair and carefully inspecting the black leather of his biker boots. The toes were scuffed from dragging against the ground when fucking around on his bike, blood splattered across the front and soaking into the laces. He clucked his tongue as he gently pulled them free from the loops, tugging his replacements from his pocket.</p><p>‘Every time, every time I tell you not to wear lace up boots but no’, Esteban grumbled, adding the ruined laces to the burn pile for the clean up crew, ‘You’re worse than Charles with your ‘aesthetic’’.</p><p>‘Nobody is worse than Charles’, Lance laughed, grabbing a wipe from the table to rub down his gloves before shoving them into the Ziplock bag Esteban was holding, ‘When does clean up get here?’.</p><p>Esteban shrugged, pulling his own gloves off, and dumping them in the bag before stepping into the bucket of water. It always made Lance pause, considering his friends mental state, whenever he saw Esteban bare foot, wielding his blades so gracefully and ruthlessly as they took someone apart. It was on of Esteban’s weird quirks. He refused to enter these meetings with shoes.</p><p>Lance focused on making sure their equipment was safe, Esteban having cleaned and re-tucked his knife into their case. Lance’s one knife was lying on top of the case, a familiar weight in his had as he picked it back up, amusing himself by across his knuckles and playing catch as Esteban sighed at him disapprovingly.</p><p>‘I’m not explaining why you need stitches to Chloe or Alex when you catch it by the blade again’, Esteban warmed, now sitting, and toweling off his feet, shoes neatly positioned on the table beside him.</p><p>‘That only happened once, Este, chill’, Lance laughed, catching the knife and tucking it in his pocket as a series of knocks sounded on the door.</p><p>It was always to the tune of Toxic by Britney Spears, making Lance and Esteban share an exasperated look as Esteban opened the door.</p><p>‘Hey boss, you go a little something on your shirt there’, Marcus smiled brightly, accent lilting as he gestured with one had at the blood staining Lance’s white t-shirt, his other hand pulling a gurney, Oscar at the other end, duffle bag over his shoulder.</p><p>‘Oh really? I hadn’t noticed that’, Lance hummed, plucking at his t-shirt, ‘Did you notice that Este?’.</p><p>Esteban didn’t dignify it with a response, rolling his eyes and moving to help Oscar begin rolling the body in the plastic as Marcus snapped on his gloves and goggles, sorting through tools to begin washing down the room.</p><p>‘Lucky we operate this side of the business out of morgue, or things would get real weird’, Marcus laughed, moving to help lift the body onto the body bag and gurney, ‘Imagine taking this poor bugger home on the tube’.</p><p>Oscar almost dropped the body with the force of his laughter, Esteban eyeing him warily before turning his glare on Lance, questioning their decision to hire the young Kiwi and Australian.</p><p>‘You two got this?’, Lance coughed, hiding his own laugh as he took his phone from Esteban as the other held it out for him.</p><p>A couple of texts from Pierre and Charles that could be glanced at once back at the headquarters flashing on the screen. Along with a simple message from Chloe, location, and confirmation for the times of the drug deal with Alonso’s crew going down a few nights from now.</p><p>The deal left a bad taste in both Stroll’s mouths, knowing the Spaniard had probably set them up. Chloe had even reached out to the Button’s, requesting intel from Jenson and Sebastian on their old friend and his tricks.</p><p>‘Hey Marcus’, Lance hummed distractedly, as he scanned the texts between him and his sister, mind wandering to the buyer that had approached them for Alonso and the offer.</p><p>‘Yeah, Boss man?’, the Kiwi replied, bleach in hand to begin the clean-up process.</p><p>‘You still living in the neutral zone with that kid from Jenson’s lot?’, Lance questioned, tucking his phone back into his pocket.</p><p>He ignored the look Esteban gave him. His friend could read him like a book, they had trained to understand each other, within moments Esteban had simply nodded and took out his own phone, fingers flying across the screen. Most likely contacting Charles to see how his latest op on the high-ranking member of Alonso’s crew, Kubica, had gone and if it had led to any new information.</p><p>‘Callum?’, Marcus replied, curiously watching Lance.</p><p>‘Yeah, that guy’, Lance nodded, quickly grabbing a bit of paper from the notebook Oscar had tucked in his duffle, scribbling down locations and times in shorthand Sebastian had taught him years ago, ‘Pass this to him for Seb, I need to talk to him after he reads it’.</p><p>Marcus simply nodded, taking the piece of paper in hand. He set the bleach down and grabbed his own phone from the duffle, tucking the paper behind his phone case and giving Lance a mock salute before getting back to work. Oscar now in gear, the two shoving each other playfully before moving to wash down the chair and stains that had spread beyond the plastic tarp.</p><p>Lance left the boys too it, carefully stepping out of the room, Esteban close behind him as they made their way from the interrogation rooms to the underground parking lot.</p><p>Years ago, he had laughed when his father had invested in a morgue and the building it was in, but now it provided perfect cover for aspects of their jobs.</p><p>‘So, you think Alonso is fucking with us?’, Esteban hummed, brief case in hand as they made their way to the car where Pierre was leaning against the driver’s side, ready to take them where they needed to go while he wasn’t needed round the clubs or with Charles.</p><p>‘Yeah, it doesn’t feel right. Chloe is worried as well, hence bringing Seb and Jenson in on this’, Lance sighed, running a hand through his hair tousling it as Pierre slid into the car at their approach.</p><p>‘They do know Alonso’s games better then anyone, especially after that fallout’. Esteban whistled, popping the booth to tuck his case into the false bottom, hiding the knives among Pierre’s trusty arsenal of guns.</p><p>‘Exactly, Sebastian knows better than anyone how far Alonso will take his games when he feels edged out of the game’, Lance answered as he ducked into the passenger seat, bumping fist with Pierre as they waited for Esteban to slide into the back.</p><p>Esteban’s response was simply a hum as he relaxed back into the seat, eyes scanning their surroundings out of habit before Pierre flicked the radio on, driving away from Benny and the lack of information they had gained on this deal.</p><p>Lance turned his gaze out the window, Watching the city streets blur as they sped down the roads, the tinted windows making the night-time lights a dulled blur of colours.</p><p>He had a feeling that this deal was going to change everything.</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The creak of the door had Lando lifting his eyes from the computer screen in front of him, peering over the rim of his glasses as the full lights switched on, blinding him briefly as Nico gave him a concerned look.</p><p>Lando knew he made a pitiful sight slumped over his work computer, two monitors running different linguistic coding programs, notes spread haphazardly across his desk. It didn’t help that he was wearing his department issued hoodie, a size too big and dwarfing him in the soft navy material with squad nine emblazoned across the arm along with his name.</p><p>The glasses also made him look like a distressed college student attempting to write a last-minute panic essay that was due in a hour rather than a detective in one of the most prestigious crime squads.</p><p>‘What are you still doing here, kid?’, Nico smiled softly, dragging Daniil’s desk chair from behind Lando’s desk so he could sit beside the young detective.</p><p>Lando offered him a sleepy smile back, covering his mouth quickly as a yawn threatened to surface when he tried to answer the question the older detective threw at him.</p><p>‘Code breaking’, Lando offered softly, reaching for the lukewarm cup of tea and taking a mouthful, trying not to think about how gross lukewarm tea tasted.</p><p>Nico sighed, plucking the cup from the small detectives’ hands, and moving towards the kitchenette without another word. Leaving Lando to stare after him in confusion before his computer let out a high-pitched ding, making him turn back to the screen, fingers flying over the keyboard to dig through the options presented to him from the analysis program.</p><p>He rubbed at his temples, eyes scanning documents and flicking between his two screens. He bit his lip, taking down the most likely notes and pulling map references up on the second screen, crosschecking possible points for the deal that their informant had alleged was happening some night this week.</p><p>Carlos had brought the informant in for another interview. The girl had a shaved head, tattoos curving beautifully round her skull, catching Lando’s attention. He was pretty sure that if he looked through his notes from the interview or early this night, he would find sketches of the dragon curled around her left ear, the tail licking at the edge of her sharp jaw.</p><p>Despite being intrigued by the mandalas and intricate line work, Lando had sat in the coffee shop beside Carlos. Trying not to frown at the pattern of words the informant repeated, something in his brain locking onto specific repeated words and how they repeated certain words. There was certain smirk on the corner of her dark red lips as she watched Carlos hang on her every word, noting it down line for line. The way she flickered her gaze over their shoulders before ducking her head and taking sips of her drink only made the itch in the back of Lando’s mind worse.</p><p>At one point Carlos had placed a hand on his knee, making Lando flinch, almost banging it off the underside of the table. He hadn’t realised he had been fidgeting with the gnawing feeling that something was wrong. That they were getting half-truths, the smirks at their expense because the information was wrong.</p><p>‘[- c;He’d been glad that he had taped the interview, having gotten bugs from Kevin before they had left the squads headquarters. The blonde Dane ruffling his hair and going over how to work them before sending him on his way as Nico had called for his eyes on an interrogation.</p><p>Carlos had been ecstatic when the results of the informant meeting, yet Lando had left with a sour taste in his mouth. Eyeing their CI as she sashayed away, sunglasses perched on her nose and popping pink fruity bubble-gum as she made her way back into the streets.</p><p>While Carlos had been tripping over himself with joy, babbling about the lead, Lando had been more reserved. Waiting for the other shoe to drop, mind whirling with the possibilities and drifting back to specialised linguistic courses he had taken in college and with the department that focused on verbal ques.</p><p>It had led to him sneaking back into the station after everyone had left, not wanting to face his partner if he had been wrong. If he had been so desperate to prove that he was part of the squad he saw things that weren’t there.</p><p>‘Here kid, you look like you could use it’, Nico’s voice pulled him from his thoughts and musing as the German detective set a fresh cup of tea and a plate filled with a variety of doughnuts in front of Lando.</p><p>‘Are those…are those the last of Kevin’s secret stash?’, Lando couldn’t help but smile, lifting the tea and inhaling the calming scent, ‘Also most people assume I drink coffee’.</p><p>‘Most people don’t notice how you glare at coffee for five minutes before drinking it and then pout at the taste’, Nico grinned, taking a doughnut covered in pink icing and sprinkles before winking at Lando, ‘If Kevin asks, Marko ate them’.</p><p>Lando couldn’t help but laugh, trying to smother the giggle into his hoodie as Nico started chuckling, pushing the plate closer to him until Lando picked up a chocolate covered one. Picking at the little multicoloured sprinkles for a second before beginning to slowly nibble at it while his eyes drifted back to his work.</p><p>Nico sat in silence, leaning back in Daniil’s desk chair, ankles crossed as he scrolled through his phone and ate his own stolen doughnut, allowing Lando the silence.</p><p>He knew that the older detective was trying to wait him out, being nice to him to build trust. The two blonde detectives had taken Lando under their wing whenever they could get a moment with him. Carlos had been excited to have a partner at last, spending most of his time attached to Lando’s side, leaving him time to relax around the others despite Horner’s words still weighing on his mind.</p><p>He looked back at the screens before him, pulling up different documents from the program he had used to pinpoint different speech patterns. Analysing each highlighted pattern that had been pinged by the software, and cross referencing them against the maps program on the second screen.</p><p>‘So, can I ask why you’re running a lingual program and crossing it with maps?’, Nico curiously asked, leaning forward, resting his elbows on the edge of table and glancing over the screens as he picked at another doughnut.</p><p>Lando handed him his headphones, gesturing for Nico to put them on as the other detective gave him a confused look. Lando ignored the look, simply picking up his phone and clicking into the audio saved in his email that Kevin had sent him before he had gone home for the day.</p><p>Nico closed is eyes, leaning his cheek against his palm as he listened while Lando typed away. Filing away the searches that led nowhere or the locations lead them into differing gang territories that the Alonso crowd would never attempt to take. One location even brought them to the middle of Button’s territory, a branch of the British mafia well known among intelligence agencies and impossible to track crimes to. As far as Lando had learned from Zak and some of the older detectives in his old precinct, the Buttons had had a huge falling out with Alonso over ten years ago and word on the street was Alonso had been threatened with death if he crossed into Button territory ever again.</p><p>Lando took every rumour with a grain salt, but this had come backed by actual evidence in the form of Alonso beaten to a pulp and dumped on Marko’s doorstep. Alonso hadn’t spent long in jail, his lawyers paying off his fines and getting him an early release, but despite his silence, the Buttons had left a mark on Alonso that was in his arrest report.</p><p>With that knowledge in mind, he had reduced the suggested coded locations that the speech pattern had picked out to a total of five by the time Nico removed the headphones, moving closer to gaze at the screen.</p><p>‘There was a code in her words, her tone was too smug’, Nico confirmed, grabbing a notepad and begging to scribble jumbled words, ‘She was leading you on, giving Carlos what he wanted to hear and distracting us from where they are actually meeting. Good catch rookie’.</p><p>Lando ducked his head, feeling that involuntary blush rising on his cheeks once more. Compliments weren’t his forte, and he squirmed as Nico laughed softly, ruffling his messy curls before turning his attention from the blush on Lando’s cheeks back to the monitors.</p><p>Lando did the same, shaking his head and letting the curls fall back from where Nico had ruffled them.</p><p>They sat in silence for a few moments, occasionally pointing at a particular pattern or crossing them off the list.</p><p>Before they knew it, the office doors were swinging open, Kevin coming in in a tank top that showed off his tattoos and clearly having just hit the precinct’s gym before making his way up to the office to grab his change of clothes from under his desk.</p><p>Lando pretended he didn’t notice how Nico’s gaze left the screens and paper in front of him, drifting to trace the shape of Kevin’s biceps and his ribs which were visible from the low cut of his top.</p><p>It was while Nico was staring at Kevin’s ass as the other detective made his way back out of the office towards the locker rooms that Lando spotted it.</p><p>He shoved the now empty plate to the side, nearly knocking it off the table and startling Nico as he did. He ignored the yelp the other detective let out fingers flying across the keyboard, bouncing between the highlighted code before him and the map on his second screen, lip between his teeth and aching as he bit down with the nervous energy.</p><p>When the program gave a happy ping confirming his hunch, Lando turned to the other detective with a look of shock. He had done it. He had followed his hunch and before him on the screen was warehouse at the edge of Alonso’s territory boarding one of the unclaimed sections of the city.</p><p>‘I…I found it’, Lando let out a laugh in disbelief as Nico grinned at him, grabbing him by the shoulders softly and shaking him gently as they laughed.</p><p>Neither of them had notice Kevin re-entering the office, rolling his eyes at the two overworked and tired detectives as they giggled and scribbled down a report for Horner, that was until they his voice come from the kitchen.</p><p>‘Who the fuck ate my doughnuts?’.</p><p>                                                            *</p><p>Lance watched as Chloe paced in front of the windows of her fifteenth-floor office.</p><p>She moved gracefully, like a lioness ready to pounce and it made Lance realise every time he saw her like this why she was now head of the family.</p><p>Chloe was the bright, confident, dominating business woman with a spine of steel and eyes that promised you a painful death if you crossed her to Lance’s quiet balanced violence and tenderness with which he ran the lower ranks of the family.</p><p>Their father had often referred to them as two sides of the same coin, working beautifully together despite their independent designs.</p><p>‘So, Sebastian agrees’, Chloe hummed, adjusting the buttons at the wrist of her navy blazer, ‘We need to treat this as a trap’.</p><p>‘He said to be wary. The last time he reached out to either of our families, Sebastian almost died’, Lance reminded her, knowing Chloe remember a little more about that time. Lance had barely been three when it had occurred, only turning five when Jenson and Sebastian had recovered and introduced George into their family.</p><p>Chloe nodded, pausing to run one perfectly manicured red nail across her lip in thought as she stared out over the other buildings and the falling night sky. These talks only happened after their legitimate business hours.</p><p>‘We go in with back up’, Chloe stated simply, turning back to face Lance, ‘You lead the party with Esteban, they’ll be expecting you two together. Take some of the younger ones, Charlotte, Marcus, maybe Oscar if you think he can handle it, in with you while...’</p><p>‘While Pierre takes back up outside of the building, or hidden on the second floor which has access straight down’, Lance finished, swirling the whiskey in his glass, ‘Do you want me to contract Max and Daniel in on this? Or the Ghost?’.</p><p>‘Draft a contract for Max and Daniel, make sure they know they’ll be paid their rates even if they just end up standing round looking pretty’, Chloe laughed, pouring herself a small glass of whiskey from the bottle Lance had brought with him, ‘Esteban do you think we need the Ghost?’</p><p>Esteban had been sitting quietly on the sofa tucked away in the corner of Chloe’s office, his shoes neatly lined in front of it and feet curled under him. Chloe had given him a fond look when he had settled into that position, one he had carried with him since childhood. Always curling up with her or Lance or their parents when he had come to live with them. Always with a book in hand, sometime with the family dog on his lap.</p><p>Even now, when he had been resting, it made Lance think of the gangly little kid with big eyes that had come to stay with them as Estebans lifted his head and ran a hand through his hair.</p><p>‘No’, Esteban answered with a shrug, ‘Plus he will probably be busy that night, but his skill set would not suit this particular event. Stick with Max and Daniel, with Pierre and Marcus, switch him to the back up team. He is more useful there with his skills than in a deal. Maybe throw Lily on the team too, she has experience working with Pierre and Max’.</p><p>Chloe nodded, settling into her desk chair and kicking off her heels. Lance watched as she pulled her burner from her pocket, shooting text after text, most likely to Charlotte and Lily who had been her protegees before she took over as family head and gave second to Lance.</p><p>Lance took a second to close his eyes, fingers tightening around the glass as he ran through the ground plans for the warehouse in his mind. Picturing every nook and cranny, where he can place his gun men, where to place the bruisers and hide them from Fernando’s men.</p><p>The only good thing about dealing with Fernando was his ego. His age was something he lorded over Chloe and Lance, constantly reminding them that they had to respect him. He looked down on them, called them spoiled and incapable brats behind their backs, always underestimating them despite their feats. Especially when their success diminished his own businesses.</p><p>A soft knock sounded at the door, making all three lift their heads, sharing glances and shrugs as to who could be still in the building this late.</p><p>Esteban moved gracefully, slipping behind the door, hand flicking to his waist where he had a hidden blade as he nodded at Chloe.</p><p>‘Enter’, Chloe permitted, running her fingers round the rim of her glass.</p><p>Unlike the knock on the door, its opening was nothing but dramatic as Charles Leclerc made his way into the room, smirking at Lance as he wiped a thumb over the pale gloss that was swiped across his lips.</p><p>Lance had to admit as he gave Charles a flirty wink and looked him over, hiring the Monegasque as their honeypot had been one of his better ideas.</p><p>The man stood before him, sharp facial features made soft by the shimmering highlight on his cheek bones and the soft shade of gold glittery eyeshadow. He was wearing a silk shirt of a creamy colour, the buttons undone and v wide enough to display his collar bones and chest. His tiny waist accented by the way it was tucked into an insanely tight pair of matte black leather pants.</p><p>Charles was as gorgeous as he was deadly with his talent to get information out of any man or woman with a flutter of his long lashes, and a pout on painted lips.</p><p> It was how Lance had meet him when they were barely eighteen, Charles stealing the spotlight in the club before making his way to Lance. Sitting pretty beside him, hand on his thigh and lips at his ear as Charles teased the information to take the Rosberg faction that had been rising in the west of the city, but only if there was a job for him within the Strolls.</p><p> Lance had hired him then and there, and Charles had never failed him. Judging by the smirk on his lips and look of satisfaction in his eyes he had broken this one too.</p><p>‘I’m taking it your little ‘meeting’ with Kubica went well’, Lance smirked as Charles sauntered over to him, plucking the whiskey from Lance’s hand before draping himself across the arm of the chair Lance was sitting in. His fingers tugging playfully at Lance’s hair as he sipped his stolen whiskey, smirk still on his lips.</p><p>In the background, Esteban rolled his eyes and went to close the door as Pierre made his way into the room. The two exchanged a fist bump before they sat at opposite ends of the sofa.</p><p>‘Kubica spilled everything after a few drinks a little convincing’, Charles shrugged delicately as he ran his nails over the back of Lance’s skull, making Lance tilt his head back into the touch, ‘Fernando is planning to try take out Lance, send a message to you and your father that you can’t ignore him any longer. The deal will go down normally, but he will have a sniper ready to take you out, mon chéri’.</p><p>Lance let his head tilt to gaze at his sister, raising an eyebrow in a quick ‘I told you so’ gesture as Chloe’s eyes narrowed with rage, her body tensing as if she was ready to strike at any moment.</p><p>No one threatened their family without Chloe retaliating or being one step ahead of them.</p><p>‘So sis, what do you want me to do here?’, Lance questioned, patting Charles thigh as the other got up to saunter over to Pierre, sitting himself in his boyfriends lap, ‘We have two options. We go in and have Max take out the sniper and one up Fernando, possible shoot out or he will be too angry to try anything and leave to plot my next murder attempt or..’</p><p>‘Or we finish him for good and dismantle everything he had built’, Chloe sighed, downing the rest of her drink as she stared at Lance, the gears in her head turning as she pondered what to do.</p><p>‘Or plan three’, Esteban offered softly, both Strolls turning to look at him where he had curled up once more in the corner of the sofa, feet tucked under him.</p><p>He was playing with one of his knives, Lance recognised it as the small one he normally kept tucked into a little sheath at his ankle. Esteban often joked it was his get of jail free knife. The joke stopped being funny when they were nineteen and a job went wrong. Lance still had nightmares and scars that had since been covered up from what had happened, but the sight of Esteban managing to break them free with one tiny knife that had been missed when they were searched, were one Lance held dear.</p><p>Chloe waved a hand at Esteban, refilling her whiskey as she rubbed at the back of her neck.</p><p>‘We take out the sniper with Max, have the backup team outside ready to go in, have a phone call going between Pierre and one of the members in the deal so when a codeword is said we know to go in’, Esteban explained, ‘Stealth is our friend, when Fernando signals the sniper and gets no response, the back up will already be inside holding the others at gunpoint. We don’t kill Fernando, cripple him by attacking his men because he will bring the higher ranks with him to watch him kill Lance and assert his power that’s waning’.</p><p>Lance watched as a sharp smile crossed Chloe’s face as the idea sunk in. She pulled a blueprint from the drawer in her desk, grabbing a box of thumbtacks and setting them beside her blueprints. Next were her coloured markers, each with a little label on the side detailing what colour coordination with the differing gangs and mafia families they dealt with including theirs.</p><p>It always made Lance smile when he saw Stroll written in his sister delicate cursive on the side of the pink marker.</p><p>‘Esteban let’s get started’, Chloe smirked, gesturing the man in question over to her as she stared at the printout in front of, ‘Lance, go make yourself useful by getting that contract sorted with Max and Dan. Pierre take Charles home, then come back to help with this please’.</p><p>‘Oh, Pierre gets a please?’, Lance teased, standing up and brushing a hand over the now wrinkled white shirt he was wearing tucked into his work slacks, but Chloe was no longer listening.</p><p>She had tied back her hair in a high ponytail and was considering thumbtacks between her red painted nails as Esteban spoke softly, pointing to places on the map.</p><p>Instead of waiting on a response that wasn’t coming, he turned, gesturing for the two on the sofa to disentangle and make their way from the office.</p><p>They had forty-eight hours to work with.</p><p>It was time to get to work.</p><p>                                                                        *</p><p>‘Okay, you all know your positions. Wait for the signal. We have it on good authority, this time’, Horner instructed, giving a quick side glance to a glowering Carlos, ‘That the other players in this deal have back up, when we see them go in, Webber will give the signal, and you storm the building’.</p><p>There was a resounding ‘yes sir’ throughout the observation van that Horner had commandeered for the raid with one of the members of the tech squad monitoring their comms and video feeds as Horner over saw the operation.</p><p>Lando watched as Horner gave them all a quick glance before landing on him.</p><p>Lando refused to flinch, keeping his face cool under pressure, and meeting his Captains steely eyes as Horner searched for some sign of weakness in the rookie. Nodding when he didn’t find it and looking back at the wider group.</p><p>‘There will most likely be gun fire, whoever is dealing with Fernando has plans to cross him tonight so its going to be tense. Try not to get shot, I don’t feel like doing any DIA paperwork tonight or having to hire any new faces’, Horner warned, before dismissing them with a wave of his hands to go take their positions.</p><p>Lando followed the rest of the squad out of the van, ducking behind it to give them cover as they each began to adjust and double check their Kevlar vest and holsters. He could even see Webber taking apart his gun and counting his bullets before reassembling it with a final click as the last part slid into place.</p><p>Despite having trained for this moment, Lando could feel his fingers shaking as they stood in the dim light of the warehouse car park. Just enough light to adjust their gear before taking position, but not enough for Carlos to notice his partners shaking hands as he fumbled over the straps of his vest.</p><p>Lando startled, suppressing the physical reaction beyond his eyes widening a fraction as a hand landed on his shoulder from behind.</p><p>‘Here, let me’, Kevin spoke softly, hands gentle as they checked each and every strap encasing the rookie in protective Kevlar before turning Lando to check the front.</p><p>‘You’re going to be fine’, Kevin’s voice was low as to not be heard over Nico who was joking with Carlos and Daniil.</p><p>Lando nodded, feeling as if his mouth was made of cotton as the sound of his blood rushed through his ears. He knew he wasn’t scared. He had been in the fire before, small shoot outs being a regular during his time as a uniformed officer and having spent time working on smaller gang cases before his transfer to squad nine.</p><p>Yet the urge to prove himself was still making his skin crawl. The look Horner had given him was still making his hairs stand on end.</p><p>This was his sink or swim, only sinking meant dying by bullet if he fucked up the op.</p><p>‘It’ll be minimal gunfire’, Kevin stated, smoothing a hand over Lando’s front, patting his shoulder, ‘These guys are too smart to start a bloodbath. Carlos will be by your side, and Nico and I will keep an eye out in case it goes sideways’.</p><p>Lando nodded, taking a deep breath, and closing his eyes for a moment before opening them and steeling himself once more.</p><p>‘Thank you’, he nodded at Kevin, clasping the other man’s forearm in a little gesture he and Nico had taught him one lunch time that was their little pre-op tradition.</p><p>Kevin smirked, ruffling Lando’s curls before moving towards his won partner and beginning to check Nico’s gear while the other detective did the same for him before Webber coughed, holding two fingers in the air, and pointing them forward to draw their attention to people creeping along the edging of the warehouse, and entering silently.</p><p>The other parties back up had arrived and it was time to go.</p><p>Carlos appeared at his side, nudging Lando’s shoulder with his. His hands were clasped around his gun, eyes on Lando before nodding at the rookie and crouching, moving to lead them to their position by one of the side entrances. Webber and Daniil took the front, Nico and Kevin ducking passed Lando and Carlos to cover the other entrance. Making sure that they had boxed in those inside, back was beginning to fill in behind each duo. Horner having requested extra agents from other squads for the raid.</p><p>They waited in silence, only gentle murmurs and the occasional raised indistinguishable voice coming from behind the thick cement walls as they wait crouched. Lando’s thighs burning slightly from the awkward position Carlos had forced him into behind him, his partner’s eyes going from checking Lando was still in place to Webber who was standing still, eyes trained round the corner of the door.</p><p>It felt like a lifetime had passed when the two-finger salute came from the other detective, life suddenly hitting fast forward as Carlos kicked in the door in front of them, yelling police and moving swiftly with his gun at eye level.</p><p>Lando followed quickly, body moving automatically and ducking behind the pillar opposite Carlos as stray gunshots began to ring throughout the warehouse, Lando’s earplug muffling the sound as he peaked round the corner, taking careful shots when he could.</p><p>The main floor was a mess of people, some running and some crumpling to the ground as shots were fired though most injuries were to disarm. A lot of them holding their arms or legs as Lando saw Nico making quick work with his gun, picking off the gang members.</p><p>Carlos had duck out of his hiding spot in a low crouch, gesturing for Lando to stay back as he made his way to the main floor before breaking into a sprint, following who Lando believed to be Fernando Alonso as he made a break for the stairs to the second floor.</p><p>Lance edged his way into the chaos, ducking under the weakening fire before tackling one man to the ground as he tried to run past, quickly using the zip ties Horner had distributed to tie him down and passing him off to one of the backup officers.</p><p>It was as he rolled, avoiding another burst of gun fire and ducking behind a collection of boxes on the opposite side of the warehouse from where he had entered that Lando spotted him.</p><p>A tall man, dark hair almost looking as if it was slicked back, encased in tight jeans and leather jacket. His face hidden by the fact that he turned at the last second, calmly walking away from the chaos behind him, heading down one of the side corridors. As the jacket shifted as he pushed the door open, Lando spotted the gun holstered around his waist under his clothing.</p><p>A quick glance around the room showed it was under control, that no one had spotted this man sauntering from the scene of a drug deal that had been raided by the police.</p><p>Everything in Lando’s gut pushed him to follow the stranger, his instincts going wild and screaming that he needed to give chase.</p><p>Without even alerting his team, Lando took off as quietly as he could. Shouldering open the door to the corridor gently, listening to the echoing footsteps as the man rounded the corner, probably heading for one of the hard to access side entrance that Lando had suggested they cover only to be waved off by Carlos and Horner.</p><p>He quickly crept along the corridor, body pressed against the wall and listening to the footfalls and as he reached the corner, they stopped. Replaced by a low voice, warm and almost sultry washing over Lando and making him hesitate before he pushed through the feeling, peeking round the corner.</p><p>The man had stopped, phone pressed to his ear and free hand flicking a butterfly knife across his knuckles. Calm and unaware of the threat that was lurking around the corner.</p><p> Lando took advantage of the mans pause, quickly creeping behind him and levelling his gun with the back of the man’s head.</p><p>‘Police’, Lando announced, almost surprised by the authority in his own unwavering voice, ‘Lower the phone, put your hands in the air, and turn around slowly. You are under arrest’.</p><p>Lando watched as the man didn’t even flinch, simply tucked the phone into his pocket with a low sigh before raising his hands into the air and beginning to turn.</p><p>At the last moment, something registered in Lando’s brain as he assessed the man before him.</p><p>The knife had disappeared.</p><p>Only briefly as when he had fully turned the man used the weight of his taller body to launch forward, the knife quickly disappearing from his sleeve and trusting forward, narrowly missing Lando’s neck and carotid artery as Lando ducked left, using his one momentum to bring his arm down on the back of the outstretched arm, just under the elbow causing a jerk reaction and the knife cluttering to the floor.</p><p>He ducked again, avoiding a fist coming his way and twisting, using his elbow to wind the taller man with a solid elbow to stomach. The taller stumbled, winded for a second before he was wrapping long fingers around one of Lando’s wrists, jerking him forward.</p><p>Lando lost his grip on the gun. Cursing as it clattered to the floor, turning as the man jerked his wrist again. He took a deep breath as he did, remembering his training and twisting, placing strength into his swing as he turned, fist smashing against the mans face.</p><p>It caught the side of his chin and lips, leaving a red mark across his face as the man stumbled backwards, tripping as he did. His grip tightened on Lando’s wrist, jerking as they crashed to the ground, immediately wrestling against each other for control.</p><p>Lando managed to hook his leg around the other, flipping them so he was on top, lowering his full weight on the others hips as he caught the taller man’s wrists in his hands, pinning them to the ground. His own smaller height meaning that he had to lean to do so, leaving his face aligned with the other mans.</p><p>Brown eyes burned with adrenaline and something Lando couldn’t place but sent a shiver down his spine as a tongue darted out to lick at the blood dribbling from wound. Their faces so close that he could feel the man’s breath against his own lips and face.</p><p>‘So pretty boy’, the other drawled, laying underneath him, smirk on his split lips and eyes burning, ‘What now?’.</p><p>Lando swallowed hard, trying to force the reactions that wanted to break from deep down as he felt his owns lips part slightly with a little hitch in his breath as he stared into those eyes. Mentally screaming at himself, reminding himself that this was a criminal even if something in the back of his mind whispered something different.</p><p>As he was gazing at the other, something registered in his mind, everything clicking into place as he let out a soft laugh to the others confusion.</p><p>‘Now, I’m going to take you into custody’, Lando replied lowly, letting a small smirk cross his lips, ‘Mr. Stroll’.</p><p>Confusion flashed over the face that he now recognised as Lance Stroll. Youngest son of financial genius and enterprise owner Lawrence Stroll. Head of International Relations in his fathers’ company, club owner and community aid entrepreneur.</p><p>Lando opened his mouth to speak once more, taking advantage of the confusion to use only one hand to pin the other wrists to the ground, reaching with the other for the zip ties in his vest, when suddenly as sharp pain bloomed across the back of his skull.</p><p>‘Oh’, Lando managed a small, pained whimper, his eyes widening before they rolled into the back of his head.</p><p>His last thoughts aside from the burning sharp pain was the firm chest under his head and a warm had on his back as he slipped into unconsciousness.</p><p>Lando came back to awareness as someone tapped his cheek gently, mummering soft words to him before someone was pulling at his eyelids, shining a bright light into them and making his newly back online world tilt with the urge to vomit as he groaned before gagging.</p><p>Hands quickly turned him on his side as he got sick, feeling his body shake and his mind pounding as he opened his eyes, flinching from the lights and noises. He tried to move his hand, to press it against the throbbing at the back of the skull when a hand caught his.</p><p>‘It’s okay Lando’, Kevin’s soft voice came from somewhere to his right as he squeezed his wrist, ‘You got a gun to the back of the head, we’re taking you to the hospital, pretty sure you got yourself a nasty concussion mate’.</p><p>Lando tried to nod but it sent another wave of nausea rolling through his body so instead he lay still, taking deep breaths as Kevin kept a thumb pressed to the pressure point into Lando’s wrist.</p><p>‘Hey, Norris’, Horner’s voice joined those of them around him, ‘Great work kid, sorry about the noggin. Did you happen to see who hit you? No one had noticed you were gone until Nico found you’.</p><p>Lando tried to focus. A face clear in his mind. The name on the tip of his tongue as he felt the gurney begin to move towards the ambulance, Carlos replacing Kevin at his side, fretting over his partner.</p><p>Yet something stopped him from speaking Lance’s name.</p><p>Instead, he offered Horner a soft ‘No’, before letting them load him into the ambulance and giving into the urge to lose himself once again in the darkness once more despite Carlos’s concerned voice asking him to stay awake.</p><p>                                                                        *</p><p>Lance stared at the glass of whiskey in his hand, thumb running over the split in his lip.</p><p>He couldn’t help the smirk on his face at the image of the pretty Detective. The first one to land a solid punch on him, let alone pin him down so easily.</p><p>He had been deceptively small in all that tight Kevlar and tactical gear. Curls lose and bouncing as they had fought. Yet there was a strength in that slim build that had pinned him down. A fire in those blue-green eyes that sparked something similar in Lance. Something that struck a chord and resonated in his soul as he had cradled the limp detective to his chest before laying him gently on the ground, taking one last look at the delicate features of his face.</p><p>He pressed his thumb against the cut, feeling it pulse under his touch before tearing his thoughts away from the image in his mind and towards the brown leather wallet that sat open on his desk.</p><p>A small grainy image of a younger version of the detective gazing up at him as Esteban entered the room, tossing an ice pack into his desk for his lip before flopping into the chair in front of Lance.</p><p>He plucked the wallet up from the desk, brushing his thumb across the detective’s ID before flicking his gaze to his friend as he dropped the wallet once more, reaching for his whiskey and taking a long sip before clearing his throat.</p><p>‘Find out everything you can about Detective Lando Norris and bring it to me’, Lance requested, glancing up from the picture to smirk widely at Esteban, ‘I think he and I are going to have some fun’.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Chapter 2!</p><p>They meet! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Drop a comment if you want to scream at me about any of this, Im loving this au and cant wait for you guys to see where its going!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A chorus of thank you and goodbye sounded throughout Lance’s office as he smiled politely, waiting for the last of the French team to log out of the meeting. Leaving Lance to stare at his tired reflection in the dark screen of his computer.</p><p>It was close to midnight his eyes burning from the screen and face sore for his ‘business’ smile. The one he had been taught to use when charming businessmen and their wives when he was a teenager, his bruises and scars hidden under a tailored suit and not a hint of his training on his soft boyish features as he held convince men and women to invest in his father’s endeavours.</p><p>‘It’s all a game Lance, every second of this and every moment you spend with that knife in your hand and my crest on your chest’, his father had drawled the night he earned the family mark, ‘It’s play or be played. You need to be smart and you need to be charming if you want to survive both of these worlds.</p><p>He had been right.</p><p>Lance hadn’t believed him back then when he was sixteen and getting inked for the first time, watching as his chest bled once more for his family, but had been right.</p><p>Everything was a game and he played it well. He wore the designer suits and softs smiles, the swooped hair and the confident grin of a spoilt businessman’s son like a second skin. Rubbing elbows and dropping compliments like they meant nothing to him, accepting handshakes and making jokes about the country clubs and yachts while posing for pictures with their foreign partners. He spoke multiple languages with ease and negotiate with a silver tongue.</p><p>Yet every time the light of the webcam blinked off or the door of the board room closed behind the last of those that needed charming, Lance felt a bone deep exhaustion that left a throbbing behind his eyes, and he allowed himself a few seconds to breath.</p><p>To exist.</p><p>To relax before he had to flip that switch inside his mind and shrug off the daytime palatable version of himself and step into his true lineage, his true self.</p><p>Although even that was a performance sometimes.</p><p>Lance ran a hand over his face, leaning back in his chair with closed eyes as his thumb pressed into the foundation covered bruise that had been left on his skin a little over twenty-four hours ago when a detective with ever changing eyes and a spark that made Lance burn had landed a hit.</p><p>It had been a long time since something as simple as a punch to the face had left him reeling like this. Left him with the ghost of a feeling and adrenaline coursing through his veins.</p><p>He had met beautiful people through his jobs and never felt a spark like he did when the small detective had him pinned to the ground, those stormy blue-green eyes burning with a determination that made the monster within his chest purr and his hands, so small compared to Lance’s own strong ones, like steel as he held him at his mercy.</p><p>Lance had gotten so used to people trying and failing to bring him to the ground physically and metaphorically, that this encounter had shaken him to the core. Leaving burning questions in his mind and an itch under his skint that he intended to scratch.</p><p>He sighed as he opened his eyes, averting them from his reflection and pulling open the sliding drawer of his desk. The brown folder tucked under a bunch of paperwork and contracts that were tomorrows problem as he pushed them aside to delicately pull the folder from within as he had down hours before after Esteban had stashed it there for him.</p><p>Flipping the cover, Lance was once again confronted with a picture of Lando Norris. His cheeks still rounded with youth, having not quiet shed the baby face he carried into his first year as a uniformed officer. His curls were tamed, cut in a typical strict short fashion to try conveying the serious persona that the young man probably believed he needed to be accepted as an officer. Although only part of his body was visible, Lando was dressed in imperceivably in his service uniform and Lance could tell by how the dark navy uniform jacket clung to his shoulders that even back then with his baby face, Lando was fit.</p><p>His gaze wandered over words he had practically memorised at this point. The detective was of English-Belgian descent, his father rich and children never wanting for anything. He had attended private schools, never had many friends and had been flagged for a possible anxiety disorder yet there was no record of medication. There was a blank spot in his teenage years. One whole year where there were no records of any kind including medical and education.</p><p>That year coincided with the year his oldest sibling, a sister six years older than Lando, had died.</p><p>No matter how far Esteban had tried to dig, he had found no trace of Lando that year. Yet he had found clear records of his three other siblings and parents.</p><p>‘Who are you, Mr. Norris?’, Lance found himself whispering as he flicked back to the photograph of Lando now. One Esteban had managed to grab from the surveillance Marcus had run the night of the raid.</p><p>In this one he saw that spark. He saw the detective that had taken him down, a young man with strength hidden behind fine features and wrapped in tight Kevlar that Lance wanted to unravel.</p><p>A knock on the door drew his gaze from Lando’s face to the now closed door where a figure was leaning against the wall, the low lights from Lance’s desk and the outside casting him in shadows.</p><p>It was what he preferred.</p><p>‘I heard you got clocked good the other night, maybe whoever did it took down your ego a bit’, the Ghost teased from his position, face half lit and smirk obvious.</p><p>‘Unfortunately for you, I survived with minimal bruising I’m afraid’, Lance smiled back sweetly with an eyebrow raised.</p><p>They had always had a fucked up relationship. Based on biting words and unpulled punches.</p><p>‘What brings you to my little office’, Lance questioned, eyeing the other cautiously, ‘It’s not every day the evasive legendary Ghost seeks me out’.</p><p>He could sense more than see the other rolling their eyes before moving further into the room, still in the shadows as was his habit and settling into a chair furthest away from Lance.</p><p>The fact he had chosen to sit made something tighten in Lances stomach, a nervous knot of dread. They called him the Ghost for more than his need to stick to the shadows and ability to assassinate a target without ever leaving a trace. It was also for how even when contracting him for a job, he made sure to barely be seen or interact more than necessary.</p><p>It was never a good reason when he lingered.</p><p>‘The detective’, was all he said in response, eyes narrowed pointedly at the folder on the desk.</p><p>‘What about him?’, Lance’s fingers tightened where he rested them on the arms of his chair, feigning disinterest despite the folder stating otherwise.</p><p>‘Leave him alone Lance’, the Ghost warned, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees and hands interlocked under his chin to stare at the young mafia boss.</p><p>Lance ignored the look, flipping the folder closed. He took his time tucking it away in the drawer, knowing the file would make its way home with him later along with his unanswered questions.</p><p>‘I haven’t done anything to him’, Lance retorted, waving a dismissive hand at the assassin, ‘In fact he’s the one that hurt me, and Esteban was the one to knock him out. You could even go as far to say that I showed him a rare mercy unlike my typical nature. After all, he’s still alive’.</p><p>The Ghost did not like the answer Lance had provided, clear disapproval and distrust written all over his face as steely blue eyes regarded him.</p><p>‘I am serious about this Lance’, the Ghost warned, ‘He’s a kid. Don’t go dragging him into this world. Don’t investigate him. Don’t go looking for him. He’s an innocent, we don’t fuck with the innocent people in this world’.</p><p>‘No one in this world is innocent, you should know this better than anyone’, Lance countered, surprised by the nativity shown by the assassin in his appraisal of the newest squad nine detective.</p><p>‘That’s where you are wrong’, the Ghost stood, making his way back to the door, ‘There is good in this world, there are people untouched by the shit show around them unlike us. He is one of them. Don’t ruin his life because you wanted to play with Horner and Marko’s newest toy’.</p><p>Lance let the words wash over him.</p><p>This was the longest conversation he had ever had with the assassin despite having known him since he was a teenager and his father contracted him to help train Lance and Esteban. The unusual situation threw him off balance slightly, messing with his resolution to dig deeper into the detective’s life, both past and present.</p><p>He wanted to get under his skin and learn what made him burn so brightly when everything in this world was designed to dim that light. That innocent goodness he seemed to carry with him. The innocence that the Ghost seemed determined to protect despite his own bloody past.</p><p>‘No one that works for them stays innocent, you and I both know that’, Lance warned, knowing that this conversation would never go the way either of them wanted it to.</p><p>Both of them too stubborn and determined in their ways to submit to the other’s plea.</p><p>‘Yes, I know’, the Ghost sighed, looking back at Lance once more, hand gripping the handle to the door, ‘But if you try drag him into this world, if you ruin an innocent person because you got curious off one meeting, I will die trying to make sure you regret that decision’.</p><p>‘You wouldn’t dare betray this family’, Lance hissed, the threat causing his temper to flare and his fingers itch for the blade tucked into his sleeve.</p><p>The Ghost simply smirked.</p><p>‘I do not work for you. I am not part of this family. If I want you dead, you will be, and your sister will never find a body to bury’, he responded, ‘And they will never find me to punish. So, take my warning Lance, and stay the fuck away from squad nine’.</p><p>Anger boiled under his skin, but before he could argue back, the Ghost was gone. The door shutting softly behind him as Lance tried to wrap his mind around the threats that had been issue.</p><p>The Ghost was a lot of things, but a liar he wasn’t. He kept his promises, and that threat had certainly been one.</p><p>He sat with the weight of it on his shoulders, letting his anger simmer out, knowing he would have an outlet for it later that night in the form of one of Fernando’s men that Marcus and Oscar had managed to nab during the raid.</p><p>Even if he wanted to, Lance knew it was already too late to head the assassin’s words. The idea of Detective Norris, his spark, and his missing year were already lodged in Lances’ mind. The feeling of his body weighing his down still sent shivers down his spine.</p><p>And he had already broken into the detective’s apartment, by passing security easily with Pierre’s help, and leaving the detective a little welcome home gift for whenever he was discharged from the hospital.</p><p>He was determined to uncover just what it was about the detective that made him itch to poke and prod at him until all his secrets were spilled at his feet for Lance to see.</p><p>It was a dangerous game he had begun to play, but as he sat in his darkening office, thumb pressing into the bruise once more and the Ghosts threatens lurking in the back of his mind, Lance couldn’t help but smile at the thought of what was to come.</p><p>                                                                        *</p><p>‘Careful, careful, watch your step Lando. Just hold onto me’, Carlos nagged, his arm tight around Lando’s waist despite him having been cleared after the twenty-four-hour holding period.</p><p>Lando gritted his teeth against the dull ache at the back of his mind, the nauseas and confusion having passed but his body feeling slightly off-kilter. It felt as if he was a computer coming back online after having been dropped down a flight of stairs, slow and a little laggy, yet functioning enough that he knew he should be able to move freely on his own.</p><p>Yet since taking his place at his side in the ambulance, pushing a concerned Kevin aside as the rest of the team processed the scene, Carlos had not left him alone.</p><p>In the hospital, as Lando lay in the dark room with his eyes closed and pain killers edging away at the pain, he had heard him through the noise of the beeping monitors. Heard his accented voice rapidly spewing theories and ideas at Kevin and Nico who had shown up to check on Lando before heading back to the precinct to begin processing and interrogating those taken in the raid.                 </p><p>Despite the name being on the tip of his tongue and the drugs coursing through his body making him feel as if he were floating, as if he could let this terrible secret out into the world, he stayed silent.</p><p>Something within him was saying that this was something just for him.</p><p>It didn’t help that he still remembered the way Lance’s gaze had felt. The connection that seemed to click into place when their eyes met and that little feeling in the back of his mind that this was someone like him, that he and the mafia boss he had been straddling in some dirty warehouse hallway were made of the cloth.</p><p>Lando still didn’t know how he felt about that thought, shoving it down as a result of the concussion and the pain medicine.</p><p>There was no way that they were the same. That Lando who had fought for years to reach this point, to do something good with his life that benefited people and protected those that couldn’t protect themselves. It had to be a fluke, a moment of insanity, that he had felt any sort of kin with someone who probably had so many skeletons in his closet that he could fill an entire graveyard and then some.</p><p>Lance Stroll was a beautiful man in a dangerous package, and Lando never wanted to encounter him again despite his reluctance to fill in the blanks for the rest of the squad.</p><p>He certainly didn’t want to deal with his partners smug bragging if he ever found out the truth.</p><p>No. Somethings were left buried.</p><p>And if Carlos didn’t let go of his hip within the next five minutes, Lando feared he may snap, and his partner would be the next thing he buried deep down with the secret of Lance.</p><p> ‘Really Carlos, I’m okay’, Lando reassured his partner once more, politely trying to step away from the older man as they stood outside his apartment building.</p><p>Carlos had been offended when Lando had said he was going to catch a taxi home, not allowed to drive for another twenty-four hours and his car being parked in the precincts underground lot on the other end of the city. He had insisted on taking Lando home before heading to work, and now it seemed he was determined to see Lando to his apartment as he tutted at the young detective and led him into the lobby of his building.</p><p>His hand still tight on Lando’s waist, forcing the younger detective to lean into him. Lando was tempted to shove him out of the elevator just before the doors closed, but the older detective had his work duffle slung over his shoulder and Lando kind of needed his keys and phone to survive the next two days of leave that Horner had forced upon him.</p><p>‘You still look pale Lando, just let me get you settled, and I can go to work knowing you won’t be suffering in your apartment’, Carlos sighed as he gestured for Lando to press the button for his floor which he did reluctantly.</p><p>The silence in the elevator was overwhelming to Lando, weighing on him, but Carlos didn’t seem to feel the same awkwardness that the young man did.</p><p>‘Do you live alone?’, Carlos questioned, eyes taking in the interior of the elevator.</p><p>Lando knew he was probably questioning how a rookie detective of Lando’s age was able to afford renting or buying an apartment in the fancier side of their city. It wasn’t a gated community nor did his building have high security like some of the expensive homes, but it was expensive.</p><p>‘Yeah, I live alone’, Lando answered, watching the floors tick by, ‘Just me and my trusty gaming pc for when I have some down time to play around’.</p><p>Carlos hummed before smiling brightly.</p><p>‘Do you like FIFA? Or Call of Duty?’, the older detective pressed as the elevator slowed to a stop.</p><p>Lando stepped forward, hoping to shake the other detective off but Carlos had the advantage of being taller and moved with him rather than lagging behind.</p><p>‘I um don’t particularly like FIFA cause I’m crap at it, but I play Call of Duty with some friends every so often’, Lando kept his answer short as he pointed towards one of the two doors on this floor, his being furthest from the elevator.</p><p>He ignored the shocked look on Carlos’s face at the thought that he shared half a floor and lived alone.</p><p>‘Can I have my bag? I kind of need my keys’, Lando awkwardly asked as they stilled at his door.</p><p>The older had to move away from Lando in order to shuffle the bag off his shoulder, allowing Lando to put some space between them as he took the bag from Carlos. He kept it between them as he dug for his keys, a buffer to stop the older detective from ‘aiding’ him once more.</p><p>‘Maybe we should play together sometime, team bonding between partners?’, Carlos offered him a half smirk, a teasing gaze as he stared at Lando as he pulled his keys from the side pocket where they were buried.</p><p>‘Maybe yeah, but um, I think I’m going to go lay down so…’, Lando gave his partner an awkward smile, gesturing towards his lock as the other detective stared at him for a moment, the silence dragging as if he were waiting for an invite in.</p><p>Carlos nodded, ruffling Lando’s hair and letting his hand drift to the back of the others neck, squeezing it gently as he had done before and Lando was reaching the end of his patience for this day. For the last twenty-four hours really.</p><p>‘I’ll see you in a few days, cabrón’, Carlos smiled before turning and heading back towards the elevator, leaving Lando allow at last when the doors pinged closed.</p><p>He took a moment for himself, resting his head against the cool wood of the door and allowing the tension in his body to ease, the ache disappearing slightly as he relaxed.</p><p>He knew Carlos meant well, but he couldn’t help but be on edge around him knowing what he did now.</p><p>Sighing, he unlocked the door, dragging his bag with him and dropping it on the floor by his shoe rack, and latching his keys on the hook before making his way further into his home, ready to drop onto his comfy oversized couch, order something unhealthy from his favourite takeaway and binge watch his comfort series on Netflix.</p><p>He walked past his dining area and froze.</p><p>There on his dining room table was a vase he didn’t own, filled with pink roses that he had never purchased. A card lay lying against the vase.</p><p>Lando felt as if he was going to be sick, his heart beating wildly in his chest knowing someone had had to break in to put them there and his home alarm system had never been alerted to the intruder. He could feel his anxiety pricking under his skin, an icy feeling creeping down his spine as he numbly walked forward.</p><p>Shaky fingers reaching for the card once he had reached the edge of the table. The material was a soft cream, his name emblazoned across it in black ink and cursive letters.</p><p>He traced a finger over it, appreciating the artistic curl of the letters before flipping it over and feeling his heart stop briefly, this time a shiver of emotions he didn’t want to comprehend creeping down his spine.</p><p>                                    Missing something? If you want your wallet back,</p><p>                                    little detective, join me for dinner at the President</p><p>                                    Suite of the La Rogue, 7pm.</p><p>                                    Don’t be late,</p><p>                                    L.S.</p><p>‘Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck’ Lando cursed, fingers crumpling the edge of the invitation, eyes wandering to his clock on the wall.</p><p>It was 6:30pm, and if he wanted his wallet back, he was going to have to grab his keys and a taxi to make it across town to the hotel that the invite was referring to.</p><p>He glanced down at himself, taking in the fact he was wearing a pair of skinny jeans that had been in his emergency bag in his car that Kevin had grabbed for him and Kevin’s squad hoodie. The dark grey material dwarfing his frame, but soft and comforting during those last few hours in the hospital.</p><p>If Lance wanted to see him, he was just going to have to accept Lando for the tired mess that he was. He didn’t plan on staying, simply grabbing his wallet, and leaving so he could indulge in his Netflix and takeaway fantasy.</p><p>Lando could feel the anger edging its way to the surface as he flagged down a taxi on the cold, darkening street, giving the address to the driver, and counting down the minutes as they made their way through traffic. The driver content to sit in silence and listen to the low buzz of the radio as Lando tried to quell his anger.</p><p>Luckily, he had kept a spare bowl of small change in his living room, knowing that at some point he would leave his wallet at work and need to pay for his takeaway delivery.</p><p>The La Rogue was a glamorous building. All carved stone and fancy lights, women in dressed more expensive than his apartment and its belonging walking the steps on the arms of men twice their age lingering inside and out.</p><p>It was the type of place his parents used to drag them for parties once upon a time when the world was simpler.</p><p>Lando hated these places with their hidden problems and cracks covered in golden décor.</p><p>Yet he made his way up the steps to the door, ignoring the looks of disdain and shock he received. He was pretty sure one woman even clutched her jewellery as if Lando was going to steal it right from her person. It made Lando want to laugh, to give into the absurdity of the situation he had found himself in.</p><p>‘Detective Norris’, an accented voice drew his attention from the doormen he had been eyeing up, trying to figure out how to get past them.</p><p>Lando turned his gaze to a tall, lanky well-dressed man standing a few metres away from him. His face had a soft smile on it, but the angles on his body and the vague outline of a knife strapped into his thigh when he moved towards Lando, screamed danger.</p><p>‘Mr. Stroll’s lap dog, I presume’, Lando gave the man a sharp smirk, letting his anger convert into bitterness and annoyance at having had to leave his home when his head still hurt.</p><p>The man offered him a sharp smile, but no name, simply gesturing for him to follow him to a side entrance, because of course Lance would have his own secret entrances with being mafia.</p><p>‘I see you are fine after that nasty blow to the head, shame that happened’, the man snarked back at him once they were climbing the stairs, Lando with his hands shoved into the pocket of Kevin’s hoodie.</p><p>‘Oh, so that was you? I’m surprised you could even get a good swing considering how twig like your arms seem’, Lando yawned, not bothering with playing nicely or covering his tiredness.</p><p>The man had hit him in the head after all and left him unconscious in a hallway, he doubted he cared for playing nice.</p><p>‘You don’t want to find out what I am capable of’, the man chuckled softly, stopping before the door marked President Suite and knocking three times.</p><p>Lando was going to reply when a soft, ‘Enter’, sounded from within the suite. The man who had accompanied him opening the door and waiting for Lando to enter the room, shutting it behind the detective to presumably stand guard outside the door.</p><p>Lance was standing in front of the wall to floor windows, gazing out over the city. He was dressed impeccably as Lando expected. A navy suit tailored to perfect, every inch of fabric accentuating his body. Lando had to admit that his eyes did trace an appreciate path from his wide shoulders to his shaped ass before shaking himself out of this stupor.</p><p>Later, he would blame the concussion for most of his actions and thoughts.</p><p>‘This is all a little dramatic isn’t it? You couldn’t have just left the wallet on my table when you broke in to leave the roses?’, Lando accused, tucking his hands into the sleeves of Kevin’s hoodie as he crossed his arms over his chest self-consciously.</p><p>Instead of an answer, Lance turned slowly, an amused smile on plump lips as his dark eyes seemed to take in every inch of Lando’s being in a slow, obvious tracing of his eyes up and down Lando’s frame.</p><p>‘I’m surprised they let you in the door, you’re a tad underdressed. Maybe I should have left a dress code in the note along with the roses’, Lance smiled, moving over to the bar cart where a row of glittering expensive looking crystal bottles in strange shapes filled with a varying-coloured liquid stood.</p><p>If he weren’t on pian killers, Lando would consider downing some of what he hoped was the vodka in order to get through this nightmare of a day.</p><p>‘Can we skip the small talk and the vague threatening I’m sure you practiced in the mirror a hundred times to get the tone of it, just right? I just want my wallet back so I can go get some Chinese food, I don’t care what you get up to in your free time’, Lando sighed, raising a tired hand to run through his hair, trying not to think of how he had only gotten a quick show in the hospital earlier.</p><p>Lance seemed to pause at his words. A delighted surprise crossing his face at Lando’s attitude, a smirk creeping over his lips and a flicker of something in his eyes that made Lando want to return the smirk.</p><p>The way he stared at him made Lando feel seen in a way no one else ever had.</p><p>‘And here I was hoping we could simply have a nice dinner, maybe a drink, and get to know each other’, Lance sighed, the smirk never leaving his face.</p><p>‘Why?’, Lando demanded, eyeing Lance distrustfully.</p><p>The mafia boss ignored his question or seemed to for some moments as he began to pore two drinks of what Lando assumed was whiskey based on the colour. Lance straightened up once more, taking a glass in each hand and walking towards Lando, his deep burning brown eyes never leaving Lando’s.</p><p>It didn’t help that Lance was taller than him, forcing him to look at the other once he had drawn close enough. Making him aware once more of how much broader the other man is in comparison to him. It took everything he had to supress a shiver as his body unhelpfully supplied him with the feeling of Lance underneath him once more, of his hands pinned in his and body solid against his.</p><p>‘Because you are the first person in a long time to land a hit on me, and I find you interesting’, Lance shrugged, handing Lando a glass which he took automatically, before taking a sip from his own.</p><p>Lando considered the man before him. Letting his eyes trace the fine features of his face, the prominent cheekbones, and plush lips. The way the curved into that wicked smirk, on that promised so many things that made Lando want to ask every secret and receive every answer from him. And the eyes, those eyes. Deep brown and filled with a spark that made something in Lando burn.</p><p>Every inch of this man was carved from danger and sin.</p><p>Lando needed to get as far away from him as possible.</p><p>‘I’m surprised more people don’t punch you in the face, you have a very punchable one. I can’t have been the first and I certainly won’t be the last’, Lando reassured him, his voice dripping with sarcasm, ‘Now please just give me my wallet, I have places to be’.</p><p>Lance seemed disappointed with the answer, looking away from Lando and jaw clenching, allowing him to see the bruise that he had left. A dark smudge under what Lando had assumed to be foundation used to cover up the bruise for work at his legitimate company his sister now ran.</p><p>Lando had to admit, it made him smile to think that Chloe Stroll with all her grace and elegance was also running a mafia branch with her brother, if his assumptions about the Stroll family were right.</p><p>‘Not even one drink then? That’s disappointing, after I went to all this trouble just to get to know you’, Lance’s voice was soft, a clear tone of underlying disappointment and guilt leaking into his words.</p><p>‘I’m so sorry you had to whip out your dad’s credit card to book a hotel room just to have a conversation with the detective that hit you’, Lando rolled his eyes, patience wearing thin and staring directly at Lance, ‘Now hand over my wallet and I can forget this ever happened’.</p><p>Anger briefly flashed across Lance’s face, his hands moving to take the drink back from Lando and downing it himself before he set the empty glasses on a nearby table. This time pushing into Lando’s space when he turned back towards him.</p><p>They were so close that he could feel Lance’s breath on his cheek as the older man leaned in closer, able to feel his lips brush his ear as he went to speak.</p><p>‘You can try all you want little detective, but you won’t be able to forget me anymore than I will forget all I have learned about you, and your family, and that missing year in your history’, Lance laughed softly.</p><p>Lando’s anger coursed deeper. A rage stirring in his gut at the idea of Lance digging in his past, of unearthing things that Lando had left buried in his old home when he had left for university.</p><p>‘Now you can sit down, and have a drink with me, if want to get this back and if you never want me to bother you again, I will stay away and content with one drink’, Lance teased, pulling back, and looking at Lando with a challenge in his eyes and his hand holding his wallet between two fingers and out of Lando’s height reach.</p><p>It took two seconds of him staring at Lance blankly, considering his options before he had settled on one, nodding slightly to himself but noticing Lance smiling, taking half a step back as if he had won.</p><p>Instead, Lando took his movement to shift his own stance before standing on his tiptoes, watching the surprise in Lance’s eyes, the fascination as Lando settled a hand on his neck. He allowed a second for his fingers to brush the small fine hairs at the nape before he used the distraction to swing his other fist into Lance’s stomach.</p><p>The result was instant. The other man gasped with the force, choking of the air the punch had forced from his lungs and dropping the wallet as he doubled over, hands clasping at his stomach.</p><p>Lando ignored the glare he got as he reached for his wallet, tucking it away into the pocket of Kevin’s hoodie, before letting his hand fall to Lance’s hair. Running his fingers through it softly as Lance tried to regain his breath, wincing from the aftershocks of pain.</p><p>‘Now I’m the guy who punched you twice’, Lando smirked, removing his hand from Lance’s hair, and stepping away from him, ‘If you ever break into my apartment again or go near my family, I will not hesitate to take you down’.</p><p>He didn’t wait for a response, didn’t look back as he made his way out of the suite, closing the door softly behind him. It still startled the dark-haired man that had brought him up to the suite as he looked up from his phone in half concealed shock.</p><p>Lando couldn’t help himself as he smiled sweetly at him.</p><p>‘Might want to go check on your master little dog, he’s had a bit of a problem’, Lando laughed, ignoring how the man glared at him, hand shifting for the knife Lando had spotted earlier before deciding his concern was Lance and shoving Lando aside to enter the suite.</p><p>He used to time to make his way down the back stairwell and towards the taxi’s waiting outside the La Rogue to take the mistresses home before the wives came calling.</p><p>Later as he lay on his couch, Parks and Rec playing in the background and empty takeaway containers on his coffee table, Lando would reply the conversation. The feeling of Lance’s chest brushing his and lips at his ear.</p><p>Earlier he had told himself he would stay away. That he would put Lance into a box to be buried along with the other things Lando had tucked away in the corners of his mind.</p><p>Yet now as he sleepily watched the show before him, he couldn’t help but smile, excited to see what Lance’s next move would be.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>TW -depiction of burns</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>‘Welcome back kid’, Kevin smiled brightly, tugging Lando into a hug not seconds after he had set his wallet and keys in the drawer of his desk.</p><p>Lando couldn’t help but smile at the other detective’s reaction, allowing himself to wrap his arms around the Danish detective and bask in the warm hug. Kevin may have gotten the nickname of the Viking due to his muscles and demeanour during interrogations, but Lando had found he was just a sweet guy underneath it all.</p><p>It was one of the things that made Lando feel safe with the older detective. His gentle and caring nature was something that had been missing from Lando’s life for a few years now. The young detective having made the choice not to let anyone too close, even his younger siblings. He used his anxiety and introverted nature as an excuse, but he still saw the look in his parent’s eyes when he dodged hugs and words of affection.</p><p>Their disappointment and whispers one of the reasons he had applied to university early, fleeing from home and striking out on his own.</p><p>The guilt ate at him every time money landed in his account or his loans were paid off suddenly when he went to make a payment on them. He knew he should reach out more, that their relationship didn’t have to be distant and that they shouldn’t have to pay him money to feel like they were caring for their son, but he couldn’t trust them.</p><p>He choked down those emotions, squeezing his eyes shut as he hugged Kevin tighter for a second before pulling back and offering the other a shy smile.</p><p>‘It’s great to have you back kid, the office was a little boring without you around’, Kevin teased, reaching up to ruffle Lando’s hair as the smaller man rolled his eyes, stepping away.</p><p>‘Am I not entertaining enough for you sweet cheeks?’, Nico asked in mock offence, dropping an arm around Lando’s shoulders and grinning down at the detective, ‘Nice to see you back shirt stuff’.</p><p>‘The day they finally haul your ass in for harassment is the day I cry tears of joy’, Kevin deadpanned, glaring softly at Nico.</p><p>Lando couldn’t help but laugh, trying to stifle the outburst behind his hand as he raised it to his mouth, but Nico and Kevin simply joined in. The three of them laughing with Nico messing with Lando’s hair and Kevin poking the German detective in the arm to try get him to stop.</p><p>‘Children’, Mark huffed, rising from his desk with cup in hand making Lando flinch until he looked up to see the older man smiling, a small slight thing, and shaking his head with a fond look on his face as he headed to the kitchen.</p><p>‘Only been here a few weeks rookie, and already Webber has smiled at you? Talk about being hot stuff’, Nico teased, shaking Lando gently as the other ducked his head, feeling a blush rising on his cheeks.</p><p>‘I don’t think hotshots or stuff get taken down by their own gun during their first real raid’, Lando muttered, still carrying some guilt and embarrassment about his entanglement with Lance.</p><p>There was a hot ball of heavy guilt in his stomach, burning slowly as he bit back the name on his tongue. At the thought of how he had let his team down. While he was chasing Lance and later lying unconscious, anything could have happened to his team and partner. Kevin could have been shot, Carlos came close to a stab wound from what the detective had told him in the hospital. Daniil had sprained a wrist taking down a guy by himself, and Lando had been straddling Lance Stroll in a hallway and letting his little pet boy guard get the drop on him.</p><p>Part of him still expected Horner to call him into his office, eyes flicking at the door nervously, as if his Captain would pop out at any minute to tell him he wasn’t a good fit.</p><p>‘Hey, Nico’s first month here? He tripped over a dog chasing a perp and broke his leg’, Kevin reassured him, having noted where Lando’s gaze had slid, ‘During my first interrogation? I tried to be all tough and smash one of the Styrofoam coffee cups and got bad burns all over my hand because it was filled with freshly made scalding coffee. Every fucks up their first month or week’.</p><p>Lando couldn’t helped but smile once more. Gazing at the small burn scar on Kevin’s thumb that he held out for him to see while Nico let him go to roll up his pants leg, pointing to a surgery scar on.</p><p>‘Got a metal pin and all, ended up adopting the dog too. His name is Zeus’ Nico beamed, rolling the leg of his pants back down before looking over Lando’s shoulder, ‘Mark, first month here, how did you mess up?’.</p><p>‘Oh mate, that’s a story for the next monthly pub night. Let’s just say it involved some lovely lady’s of the night, a drag queen, some drugs and Horner creating the Squad’s No No list he keeps in his office’, Webber snorted, walking back to his desk with a fresh coffee in hand, but stopping to hand Lando a tea, ‘Welcome back kid’.</p><p>‘Thank you’, Lando smiled, wrapping both hands around the warm mug, trying not to feel emotional over clearly being accepted by the toughest member to crack on the team.</p><p>The discussion paused briefly as the main door open, the sound of Carlos’s and Daniil’s laughter ringing through the bullpen as they came back from their café run. Hands filled with bags that smelled of the amazing bakery down the street that Carlos and Kevin had told him that they take turns buying from on days where they had squad tactical meetings about larger cases.</p><p>Considering the information from the Fernando bust, Lando had come to work prepared to spend hours in their meeting room aiding with the technical side of the investigation.</p><p>‘Daniil, how did you fuck up during your first week or month on the squad?’, Nico grinned, turning to glance at Lando, ‘He got a nickname for this one’.</p><p>Daniil burst into laughter, grinning as he joined their little group after dropping a small bag on Mark’s desk as the oldest detective just watched the chaos.</p><p>‘I crashed the squad car during a high speed chase, and scraped a Ferrari when driving the wrong way down a one way street to try cut off the perp. They started calling me Torpedo after I crashed straight into the other car’, Daniil smirked, shrugging as Lando stared at him with wide eyes, ‘I was faster then him, he survived don’t worry’.</p><p>‘My friend I think you ended up worse than he did with the way Marko chewed you out for it’, Carlos grinned, immediately standing in Lando’s space and letting his fingers brush the younger detectives, ‘He was banned from driving after that’.</p><p>Daniil just grinned at Lando, shrugging as if to say oh well.</p><p>‘That is…amazing, and here I was worried about having screwed up the raid’, Lando laughed, stepping away from Carlos slightly under the guise of looking up at his partner as he sipped his tea, ‘What did you do then?’.</p><p>Carlos opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a snort and door closing as Horner came from his office, files in hand and smirk on his lips.</p><p>‘Chilli, managed to nab a perp his first week, but ended up crying while reading him his rights because he had jumped over a fast food stand, put his hand in a pile of chilli’s, and then when he caught the perp, rubbed the sweat out of his eyes and succeeded in nearly blinding himself due to the chilli residue on his hands’, Horner smirked, a fond look in his eyes as he nudged the Spanish detectives shoulder as he scowled slightly.</p><p>‘Not one of my best moments, no’, Carlos grumbled, shifting towards Lando’s space again and wrapping an arm around his partner.</p><p>Lando pretended he didn’t notice the way Kevin narrowed his eyes when Lando flinched slightly at the sudden touch, smoothing the cringe from his features to smile with the laughing bunch.</p><p>‘Cap, how did you mess up during your first month?’, Nico teased, drawing Kevin’s gaze from the pair of detectives and to where Nico had a hand on his shoulder.</p><p>‘Bold of you to assume I make mistakes Hülkenberg’, Horner raised an eyebrow, making Lando shrink before he grinned, ‘I went undercover, forgot my badge, tried to arrest a perp and ended up getting arrested for false imprisonment. Perp got away, I got bailed out of jail by an angry Marko’.</p><p>There was a moment of silence before the entire squad burst into laughter, Horner grinning proudly as Nico double over, using Kevin’s shoulder to stay upright with the force of his laughter.</p><p>It only died down as Horner clapped his hands, drawing attention back to him.</p><p>‘Right, are we ready to start digging through this stuff? Marko wants an undercover information gathering op so we need to move fast’, Horner sighed, running a hand through his hair and looking at each of his detectives.</p><p>They all nodded, Mark getting up from his desk to grab a pile of files he had been working on. Kevin and Nico moved to grab the portable white board they had beside their desk; markers tucked into a little bag hanging off the side.</p><p>Lando ran to the kitchen to wash out his mug, before grabbing his laptop. Ignoring how Carlos offered to carry it for hm by gesturing for him to give it him, simply smiling at the other and nudging him to get a move on and follow the others into the board room where Horner was setting up.</p><p>‘Lando, you can set up there where the second screen is’, Horner waved towards a desk with a monitor at one side of the room, the projector to the right of it and cables for him to connect the monitor to his laptop.</p><p>‘Thanks Captain’, he nodded, splitting from his now pouting partner who Daniil had roped into setting up the man on the pin board behind the round table. Nico was erasing the doodles on the whiteboard and what looked like a game of hang man while Kevin began to hand out summary files of the raid that Horner had compiled.</p><p>Mark stood chatting quietly with Horner, seeming to be arguing with the other.</p><p>It hadn’t taken long for Lando to realise that while Horner was Captain, Mark was the senior squad member and acted as an advocate for them without ever having been asked. Kevin had told him, when visiting his apartment to make sure he hadn’t died after being released, that it had been Mark that insisted on the few days off. Marko had wanted Lando back in the office the day after his release, and Mark had held steady, forcing them to give Lando a few days medical leave to recover.</p><p>It had changed his perspective of the quiet, brooding detective who up till this morning had never shown an interest in Lando. His hidden kindness made him wonder what exactly had happened to make the detective so distant from the team. He had asked Kevin, but the older detective had only shaken his head, saying Mark would explain when he wanted Lando to know.</p><p>Watching Mark sigh and walk away towards Daniil and Carlos had Lando biting his lips with nerves as he set up his systems and logged into everything he might need, including linking to the projector in case they needed to review footage for other cases that linked into the raid and Fernando gang.</p><p>‘Okay squad gather round for debrief’, Horner clapped his hands, ‘You too Norris, we don’t need your skills on the net just yet’.</p><p>Lando nodded, grabbing his notebook and a pen before heading to sit beside Kevin. However, he was interrupted by Carlos pulling out a chair for him, gesturing for the younger to sit down. Seeing no other option that wouldn’t alert his team or Carlos to his slight discomfort, he sat beside his partner, exchanging fist bumps before turning to face Horner who had taken a seat near Mark.</p><p>‘Right, as you know we got a good chunk of information from those detained during the raid. A lot of people are turning on Alonso right now. His power is waning, there’s talks of the Button’s moving on some of his territory in the next few months. If that happens this city will be at war, and now we have a third player in the mix’, Horner summarized, elbows on the table and hands clasped together, ‘For now, Marko does not want to pursue this third party, they are a distraction from the real issues which the possible mafia war. What he wants us to do is shift through what we have, press for more from those in custody, and set up an undercover sting operation through a club we now know Alonso operates in’.</p><p>Lando glanced around the table as Horner spoke, noticing Mark’s flinch at the mention of the Button family and the way Daniil worriedly eyed his partner. Kevin and Nico remained neutral, Nico flipping through files and Kevin making the odd note. Carlos was focused completely on their boss.</p><p>‘I’ve already discussed this with Mark, Marko has outlined a basic plan for the sting operation in one of the nightclubs known for being a meeting ground and hang out point between families and gangs. The details are up to us to work out based on what we find but he was clear in who he wants to use for the undercover work’, Horner cleared his throat, gaze landing on Lando heavily.</p><p>The detective felt his stomach drop. Horner didn’t need to drop a name, the other five following his gaze to where Lando was sitting, trying not to squirm with the attention.</p><p>‘No, absolutely not. He’s only been on the squad a few weeks, you cannot put him undercover’, Kevin protested, arms crossed and anger burning in his eyes.</p><p>‘Marko wants to use Lando. His lack of time on the team is exactly why he is the best choice. No one knows he is a part of this squad, he hasn’t been in the media, and his last precinct wasn’t in this distract or Alonso’s territory’, Horner explained calmly, meeting Kevin’s furious gaze head on.</p><p>‘That’s bullshit, bullshit and you know it Horner’, Kevin scoffed, ignoring Nico’s attempt to reach for him, ‘He’s setting the kid up to fail. Lando is a great detective but he hasn’t been trained for undercover ops. Mark, you cannot be agreeing to this plan’.</p><p>Mark scowled, looking down at his clenched fist. Suddenly it was clear what he and Horner had been having that argument about. It was about him. Mark’s disagreement clear in his eyes, but the defeat slump to his shoulder told him that he had lost the battle.</p><p>‘It’s not my call’, Mark bit out, looking away from the table.</p><p>‘Bullshit, use me or Nico, even Daniil, but not Lando’, Kevin continued to argue until Horner cut him off with a glare.</p><p>‘Detective Magnussen I suggest you go cool off and remember I am your Captain. You may not agree with the initial choice, but strategically it is sound’, Horner warned, watching as Kevin stood up and left the room, Nico following him a moment later after Horner gestured at him.</p><p>The room was silent as the door swung closed and all eyes turned back to Lando.</p><p>‘I know this is a big ask, but-‘, Horner sighed, running a hand over his face as he fixed his stare on Lando.</p><p>‘I’ll do it. I learn quick, I’m unknown, it’s the perfect strategy’, Lando was determined, meeting Horner’s eyes.</p><p>He didn’t even flinch as a hand landed on his thigh, squeezing gently. His gaze unwavering.</p><p>‘Are you sure cabron?’, Carlos question, hand a warm weight on his thigh.</p><p>Lando nodded. He was determined to prove himself to the team after his disaster of a start. It would also give him something to focus on, shoving thoughts of Lance Stroll’s eyes from his mind, and the ghost of his lips from his skin.</p><p>‘Alright boys’, Horner grinned wickedly as Kevin and Nico returned to the table, ‘Lets get started’.</p><p>                                                            *</p><p>The club music reverberated into the back room, sound stopping at the door but the vibrates running through the floor and through Lance’s body as he grinned sharply at the man before him.</p><p>He flexed his fingers, before pressing one fist into the other hand, crackling all of his knuckles before repeating the motion with the next hand. It was satisfying to feel them crack, even more so watching the eyes following his hands. The way the mans throat swallowed involuntarily, betraying his nerves as much as the bead of sweat running down his face did.</p><p>And he had even toughed him yet.</p><p>‘Now, now, now Jev, you have a lot of nerve stepping foot in my club after that stunt your boss pulled two weeks ago’, Lance chuckled darkly, towering over Jev as Esteban held him firmly in place with hands on his shoulders.</p><p>He could see Esteban’s thumbs digging painfully into the man’s collarbones, making him squirm.</p><p>‘I’m here because Alonso is fading, and I don’t want to go down with the ship’, Jev promised, eyeing Lance warily but desperation clear in his eyes, ‘The move was cowardly, we tried to talk him out of it, but he has lost it. He was never the same after the fall out with the Button’s, and rumours of Jenson moving for his territory is setting him on edge’.</p><p>Lance hummed, turning away from Jev and Esteban, ignoring the way Jev cried out at whatever Esteban had down to him. Only a soft little whimper, meaning that Esteban hadn’t evenr each for his knives yet.</p><p>Lance knew he was showing restraint. Esteban had been watching him for days, ever since Lando Norris had left him doubled over and breathless in La Rogue presidential suite. He knew his friend was waiting, waiting for the frustration at not getting what he wanted, and being teased when he was used to having all the power to break the surface.</p><p>After his last few notes left in the Detectives letter box in his building lobby had been returned to his office in a brown envelope, shredded with a simple note reading ‘fuck you’, Lance could almost taste his own frustration leaking into the air.</p><p>He was going to spill blood tonight. And then he was going to soak up the atmosphere of his club, maybe flirt with Charles until Pierre dragged him away to remind him who he belonged too. He might even pick up that curly haired man who had winked at him as he had entered the club earlier. The man was taller than the detective, more broad and buff, but the illusion maybe enough depending on how drunk he allowed himself to get later that night.</p><p>For now, he eyed his toys on the desk. Hand skimming over the pliers, nail pulling was useful, but messy. Lance didn’t want to have to change. He knew how looked right now in his ripped jeans that clung to his thighs, and his light grey v-neck t-shirt display enough chest to draw looks. The leather jacket was more for his own comfort than style.</p><p>‘I swear, I only want to get out of Alonso’s family. I will give you everything, I have documents. Names of suppliers. Texts. If you give me immunity, I will give you everything Stroll’, Jev persisted in his begging, grating on Lance’s nerves.</p><p>He picked up the wicked looking knife, testing the weight in his hands, tossing it gently from one to the other before tucking it into the sheath under his t-shirt for the time being. He was more interested in what he could do with the dashboard lighter Pierre had plucked from a car they abandoned after a messy kill, and the lighter that lay beside it.</p><p> He was going to enjoy this.</p><p>He tucked them into his pocket, before turning, leaning back on the desk with his head cocked considering the panicked man before him.</p><p>‘Why should I?’, Lance shrugged, ‘Only two weeks ago you were ready to snipe me, ready to start a war my family does not want, why should I trust a word that comes from your mouth?’.</p><p>‘Because I never loaded the gun. Ask Max and Dan, it wasn’t loaded when they took it from me. I was never going to shoot. I want Fernando dead’, Jev admitted, trying to meet Lance’s eyes to show sincerity, ‘I wanted to leave after what he did to Jenson’s husband, but he knows too much, and is too unstable for me to leave cleanly’.</p><p>Lance considered his words. Jev had been friendly with Jenson, often the mediator and negotiator for Fernando when the two families were working together. Anyone who cared for Jenson had felt his anger and pain at what Fernando had done. Lance had only been a child, only around four but even he had memories of Jenson sitting broken by a bedside for weeks.</p><p>‘What makes you think I won’t take the information, and kill you?’, Lance drawled, pushing the memories away as he grinned at Jev.</p><p>‘Because you respect honesty, you’re not a monster Lance’, Jev spoke softly, this time managing to hold Lance’s gaze with his own.</p><p>‘Oh Jev’, Lance sighed, pushing off the desk and moving to stand over the man once more, Jev’s legs between his own, ‘We are all monsters’.</p><p>Before Jev could answer, Lance had the knife unsheathed and twirled it in his hand, admiring the way the light of the office hit the blade.</p><p>‘You understand that while I may want to help you, I cannot let your move against me go unpunished?’, Lance motioned for Esteban to remove Jev’s shirt, his eyes landing on the crest on Jev’s pec.</p><p>It was a small simple design of two cards, both hearts, one had the number one and the other the number four. Making the lucky number that had been passed down from the first family to all generations; fourteen.</p><p>‘I know, I would expect nothing less’, Jev nodded, clenching his jaw, and rolling his shoulders back in preparation.</p><p>‘Gag him’, Lando instructed , watching as Esteban wrung Jev’s thsirt between his hands until it formed a tight roll.</p><p>Jev opened his mouth easily, teeth biting into the fabric as Esteban held it taut behind him, and Jev nodded to Lance when he was ready.</p><p>‘I think removing the tattoo is a good form of punishment and show of you breaking allegiance. A reminder of your betrayal of the family you swore to protect, but I like this shirt too much to let you blood ruin it’, Lance smirked, removing the dashboard lighter and cigarette light from his pocket, ‘So we are going to get creative’.</p><p>He took his time as he heated the metal, eyeing where to place the first burn.</p><p>‘Pierre’, Lance called, knowing the other was outside the door.</p><p>The other Frenchman ducked into the room, locking the door behind him as a precaution, looking to Lance for instruction.</p><p>‘Hold him down, this will hurt’, Lance beckoned him as he sat on Jev’s thighs, giving him better access to his chest.</p><p>Esteban shifted, allowing Pierre to duck under his arms. His smaller height allowing Esetban to stand behind him while holding the gag tight as Pierre pressed down on his shoulders.</p><p>The first touch of the burning hot metal to Jev’s skin saw the man jerk under Lance and Pierre, a short shout muffled by the gag. The movement made the dashboard light press deeper into the skin above the one. The smell of burning skin, made Lance wrinkle his nose in disgust as he pulled the light back, heating it again before continuing to disfigure the tattoo, burning the second one from Jev’s skin.</p><p>A pattern developed of Lance burning the skin, reheating the dashboard lighter and reapplying to another part of the tattoo. There was no true meaning to the way he disfigured the tattoo aside from the numbers. Some of the hearts were left intact, Lance burning away parts of the sharp lines that formed the cards. Jev’s whimpers the only noise in the room between soft bursts of music that managed to break through the door as the club outside filled as was typical for a Friday night.</p><p>He pulled the light back after the last four was replaced by angry red burns and swollen tender skin surrounding it. Jev’s eyes watered, but no tear ever fell. Lance admired the strength he displayed.</p><p>He had probably needed it to survive so many years within Fernando’s organisation.</p><p>Lance stood carefully, making sure not to stumble and burn himself with the still hot light as he moved to dispose of them on the desk for Marcus or Oscar to clear later.</p><p>‘You can let him go’, Lance waved a hand in dismissal, hearing the first ragged breath as the gag fell from Jev’s mouth, ‘Take Pierre with you, give him the information you promised. He will take you to our Doctor in the neutral zone, after that we will help you disappear. You have your immunity’.</p><p>Jev tilted his head to stare at the ceiling, wincing as Pierre offered him a hand to pull him to his feet, the motion of taking the Frenchman’s hand pulling at the burns.</p><p>‘Thank you Lance’, Jev smiled tiredly, but sincerely, relief clear through the pain, ‘Do you think…could you tell Jenson I’m sorry? We were friends once, if I’m leaving I want him to know I tried to stop it’.</p><p>Lance nodded, offering the older man a smile back as Pierre helped him pull his shirt back on before leading him out of the room.</p><p>‘Send the Oscar and Charlotte to tail them in case he tries to pull anything, not that I think he will’, Lance advised Esteban who nodded, pulling out his phone to make some calls.</p><p>Lance turned back to the desk, walking around it to settle into the desk chair tiredly. The adrenaline and frustration of the last few days draining from his body after taking it out on Jev.</p><p>‘You’re going soft, Lance’, Esteban teased, phone tucked back into his pocket as he dragged the chair Jev had been in to settle opposite Lance.</p><p>‘Call it old age’, Lance snorted, sharing a quick smile with his friend before they started laughing, Esteban rolling his eyes at the other antics.</p><p>Their laughter died away and Lance took a moment to subtly eye his friend.</p><p>Esteban was sitting with his back straight where he usually folded in on himself when relaxed or alone with Lance, allowing his guards down around his oldest friend. Yet here he was tense, biting at his lip as if he was trying to stop himself saying something.</p><p>Lance had a feeling that it was about his mood since the meeting at the presidential suite. About the notes he had left and the flowers he had sent to the apartment building only to be refunded his money as ‘no one by that name lived in the building anymore’.</p><p>‘Spit it out Este, then we can go get drunk’, Lance sighed, running a hand through his hair to tussle it artfully.</p><p>Esteban hesitated, words at the tip of his tongue but not leaving his mouth until Lance shot him a concerned look.</p><p>‘I’m worried about how attached you seem to this detective’, Esteban admitted, hands folded in his lap, ‘I know you can handle yourself, and I trust you with my life. I just don’t want to see you hurt by him turning you in, or worse, stringing you along to break you’.</p><p>Lance had expected harsh words. Expected his friend to tell him to stop thinking with his dick and think with his other head, but the concern in Esteban’s brown eyes made Lance hurt.</p><p>They were like brothers. Raised together, bled together. At times they were the only person the other had. For Esteban whose parents had handed him to the Strolls to save their business, Lance really was all he had in the way of family anymore.</p><p>‘As much as I hate to say it, you’re right. I haven’t been thinking clearly’, Lance admitted, glancing at his hands, ‘There is something about that man that makes me burn, and its dangerous and tempting. He’s a do not touch sign, and I’m the kid with no restraint and ends up touching fire’.</p><p>‘Well, I always did say you were the less intelligent of the Stroll siblings. I mean, Hammy had more sense than you and he was a dog’, Esteban teased, reaching out to take Lance’s hand and squeeze it, ‘I’m not saying ignore your feelings. I’m just advising you to be careful, don’t get so deep into this thing that you get burned’.</p><p>Lando swallowed the lump in his throat as he squeezed his friends’ hand back softly, softer then his hands were used to being. It was hard at times to not get lost in the things outside of the world he had grown up in.</p><p>Lando Norris was one of those things. A dangerous thing.</p><p>‘I’ll try one more time, if he turns me down again, if he doesn’t give me a chance, then I will walk away’, Lance promised, his voice steady and mind set.</p><p>He wouldn’t burn his world to the ground for someone that would walk away from the flames. He would cut his losses the next time his notes or flowers were returned to him.</p><p>Esteban nodded, letting go of his hand before standing, brushing invisible dust off his own dark sweater and jeans before shooting Lance a grin.</p><p>‘Time to go get drunk and bother Charles?’, Esteban laughed, gesturing towards the door.</p><p>‘Lead the way Este’, Lance laughed in return, rounding the table and dropping an arm around Esteban’s shoulder.</p><p>They made sure to pocket the key to the room, locking it as they left, Esteban tucking the key into his pocket as he broke free from Lance, promising to meet him at their booth in the VIP section once he had given the key to Oscar for him to begin the clean-up.</p><p>Lance let the music wash over him, basking in the flashing lights and atmosphere as he wandered to the edge of the dance floor which was sunken into the ground. Letting him rest at the railings, scanning the bar for Esteban as Oscar had been station at one end to see if her could over here any useful information from drunk gang members.</p><p>A hand slid down his arm, a body pressed into his back and lips grazed his ear, but Lance didn’t startle, only smirking as he turned around, leaning his back against the railing and letting Charles rest his hands on his shoulders.</p><p>The man was looking the picture of beauty and sin tonight. His lips painted a signature red, hair tousled as if he had just had sex and rocked up to the club. Shimmering highlight accented his sharp cheeks, and his eyes defined by smoky colours and eye liner.</p><p>Lance let his eyes rake over his outfit of choice for the evening. A simple, yet sexy black slip dress clung to his lithe frame. Small spaghetti straps over his defined collarbones and chest contoured softly to give the illusion of cleavage. A slit on one side went from where the dress ended mid tight, to his hip, the gap joined by rows of delicate silver chains that drew onlookers eye to his pale thigh.</p><p>‘Hello gorgeous, get bored with the dusty old men?’, Lance hummed as Charles looped his arms around his neck and pressed close.</p><p>This way anyone looking would simply see two club goers pressed together in the dark, the intimate hold encouraging them to look away. Charles knew how to use his skills and knowledge to seem both eye catching and invisible when time called for it.</p><p>‘God yes, there is only so many times I can be groped and told what a pretty little house boy I’d make before I need a stiff drink’, Charles groaned, resting his check against Lance’s as the other laughter, running a hand up Charles’s back gently.</p><p>‘Want to come hide in the VIP booth with me and Esteban? I have plans for a bottle of Tequila and you know how Este gets on Tequila, he will happily judge outfits with you after a few shots?’, Lance smiled as Charles pulled back to look at him, eyes lighting up with the idea, even bouncing a little as he did.</p><p>‘Yes, bitchy Esteban is my favourite Esteban, lets go’, Charles grinned, tugging at Lance’s hand.</p><p>Lance threw his head back and laughed as Charles excitedly tugged him towards the stairs to the VIP area. He could see Esteban already making his way up them, waving to their bouncer at the top as Charles aided them in wading through the crowds.</p><p>As they headed up the stairs glanced back at the main bar and dance floor, freezing in place as something caught his eyes.</p><p>‘Lance?’, Charles questioned, barely audible over the music and the sound of Lance’s own heart racing in his chest as he focused his gaze on the bar just as one of the lights swung round to illuminate it.</p><p>There at the bar, sipping on a drink and illuminated under the lights, was detective Lando Norris. His curls wild, and dress in a tight white shirt that made him look soft, angelic as the white glowed under the lights.</p><p>Despite his earlier words and conviction, Lance could tear his eyes away from him even as he turned away from the dance floor and back to the bar, out of view as people moved around him.</p><p>In that moment Lance realised he might have lied.</p><p>Walking away from him wouldn’t be something he could easily do.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Getting further and further into the mess that is Lando and Lance and their worlds!<br/>This may be one of my favourite things I've written.<br/>I'm so glad you all seem to enjoy it.<br/>Please continue to comment, I love hearing your thoughts and theories &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW- Unwanted advances (character uncomfortable with being touched)</p><p>Some of you predicted a little part of this, so enjoy it ;)</p><p>Come scream at me in the comments and share your theories for the next chapter!</p><p>I hope you enjoy this one!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lando smiled shyly at the man pressed into his space, leaning into the arm around his waist as if he wanted to lean further into the touch but was too shy.</p><p>He even shivered, turning wide eyes on the man who had introduced himself as Dan brushed his thumb across Lando’s hip bone where his shirt had come untucked. Biting his lip and giggling softly before ducking his face behind his hand as if he were embarrassed by his reaction to the touch.</p><p>Dan was eating it up. Filthy grin on his face as he leered at Lando, the lights reflecting off his platinum blonde hair, as he pulled Lando closer.</p><p>Lando tried not to flinch at the offensive waft of cheap spirits that oozed on the others breath or the overwhelming scent of Lynx that assault him as he shyly tucked his head into the other man’s shoulder, letting out a little soft sound as hands wander his back.</p><p>Lando was thankful that none of his team were inside the club, their faces too known to let them run surveillance inside. He could almost feel Kevin’s anger from the van outside where he insisted on running coms if he were able to see how Lando was letting himself be felt up.</p><p>Carlos had tried to insist on coming in, on pretending to be Lando’s anger boyfriend, storming to the rescue if anything went wrong. Horner had been quick to shut it down, relegating his partner to another job with Daniil and Mark on the edge of Alonso’s territory.</p><p>‘A pretty little thing like you would make a killing in my line of work sweetheart’, Dan sighed, hand under Lando’s shirt and resting on his back.</p><p>Lando closed his eyes, supressing the urge to shove the slimy, overly touchy man away from him and playing up his role as the shy, influenceable college student looking to score more than a hook-up for the night.</p><p>‘Oh yeah, and what would you have me do?’, Lando smirked softly, leaning up to whisper in Dan’s ear, letting his lips brush the skin.</p><p>‘Oh honey, what wouldn’t I have you do?’, Dan hummed, raking his nail gently over Lando’s spine, Lando arching further into him and ignore what was brushing against his hip, as Dan whispered filthy things into his ear.</p><p>He tried not to laugh with the thought of Nico and Kevin hearing the dirty talk loud and clear. They hadn’t wanted to risk a typical wire, knowing that in a club full of horny college students, drug addicts, dealers and mafia, that Lando would have to put out to get information. Instead, they’d used a new device that looked like studded earrings.</p><p>The squad had been shocked when Lando admitted that he had two piercings in his left lobe from his teenage years and that they hadn’t closed.</p><p>Dan had even touched the two wired studs, complimenting the ‘unique’ black gems. Little did he know as he whispered about how he wanted to do lines of cocaine off Lando’s stomach that Lando’s squad members were sat in a cleaning van outside the laundromat across the road hearing every word.</p><p>He almost lost character picturing Nico roaring with laughter as Kevin cursed a storm in every language, he spoke for the things that were being said.</p><p>‘You’d make such a good honeypot baby’, Dan sighed, pulling back to brush a thumb across the soft shimmering lipstick that Lando had applied earlier, ‘I could use you to lure in busines, make money pumping our drugs faster through the city, maybe even lure a few of our competition’s men to their deaths’.</p><p>‘Like a…a siren?’, Lando giggled, wrapping his arms around Dan’s neck, and leaning back to batt his eyelids subtly at the other.</p><p>‘You’re pretty enough to be one’, Dan laughed, pressing a kiss to Lando’s cheek, ‘A little bit of training and you’d be so good. No one could resist you’.</p><p>Lando gave him that sweet shy smile again, moving to tuck a curl behind his ear and biting his lip to add to the effect, watching as Dan’s pupils dilated.</p><p>‘Why don’t you show me the ropes then? If you think I’m good enough for you’, Lando muttered, glancing at Dan’s lips and letting his own part softly.</p><p>‘Baby, you’re killing me’, Dan groaned, resting his forehead against Lando’s, making Lando giggle softly, ‘But the boss would kill me if I were late with this job tonight after the last two weeks’.</p><p>Lando pouted, pulling back to stare at Dan sadly before looking down, feigning disappointment.</p><p>‘I thought you said I was irresistible? But you’re going to…to leave me here?’, Lando sighed, letting his hand’s slid away from Dan’s shoulders slowly.</p><p>This caused an immediate reaction, Dan’s fingers tightening around his waist, making soft noises as if to sooth Lando’s hurt.</p><p>‘I have to leave for a little while. I have to meet with Giovinazzi, he’s one of the only drug runners taking Alonso’s stash right now but Alonso wants him gone. I promise as soon as it’s done, I’m coming back here for you’, Dan promised, pressing a gentle kiss to Lando’s lips.</p><p>Lando could feel bile rising in his throat but pushed down the sick feeling and the shake in his hands. As much as Kevin had told him he didn’t have to comprise his own boundaries for this mission, Horner had taken him aside and told him to do anything he needed to get information, even if that meant doing thing’s outside of his comfort zone.</p><p>So, he wrapped his arms around Dan’s neck, pressing close and counting to one hundred in Belgian and English as he let the other slips his hands under his shirt again, deepening the kiss and whimpering when Dan went to pull away, batting wide blown eyes lined with mascara and eye liner to bring out the colour at him.</p><p>‘Are you sure you can’t stay? Isn’t it dangerous? We…we could go back to mine?’, Lando whined, pressing another kiss to Dan’s lips, ‘Maybe let you teach me how to use? You said something about lines off my stomach…that has to be better than where you’re going?’.</p><p>The other groaned again, pressing Lando back against the wall where they were hidden at the edge of the bar to kiss him again before pulling away as Lando pretended to be turned on, adding small shivers and a rapid breathing to draw Dan’s eyes to where his shirt was open slightly, knocked off one shoulder by wandering hands.</p><p>‘Anywhere with you will be better than meeting Giovinazzi in that dingy drug den in the Slum, but I really can’t fuck this up’, Dan sighed, hands cupping Lando’s jaw softly and an edge of fear in his eyes, ‘Alonso is out for blood, we all have to do things we don’t want to right now’.</p><p>‘Will you be safe?’, Lando questioned, allowing his eyes to tear slightly as if he were afraid for the other when truly he couldn’t wait to have his hands off his jaw.</p><p>‘As long as I move this product, and I take down Giovinazzi for his dealings with the Buttons that are rumoured, I will be back in an hour to take you home baby’, Dan reassured, pulling Lando into another kiss.</p><p>‘Okay, don’t make me wait too long’, Lando pouted, rubbing at his eye sadly as Dan smiled softly at him, pressing a kiss to his forehead and a business card into his hand.</p><p>‘If I’m not back in an hour, things got messy and I may have to play hide the body, so send me a text, and I’ll swing by after clean up’, Dan smiled, pressing one last kiss to Lando’s lip before walking away and merging into the crowd, leaving Lando alone.</p><p>Once he heard the low buzz by his ear stop, signalling Kevin had cut the feed, Lando allowed himself a moment to sag against the wall while hidden from sight. Knowing anyone looking would see a pouty, slightly debouched college kid who’s partner or hook-up for the night had left him cold.</p><p>There was no way they could tell that he was swallowing down a little bit of panic, trying to rationalize his actions as part of the job. As part of his cover as Jamie, that he was simply a shy, insecure college kid looking for any sort of affection and love in the wrong places. Parts of his cover hit too close to home, his fingers twitching to take out the earrings and stomp on them, but knowing doing so would not only get him fired, but send Nico and Kevin into a panic.</p><p>‘You go this, we can do this, just a little long’, Lando whispered to himself as a shaking hand pulled the tub of lipstick from his pocket, hoping he wasn’t smudging it around his mouth badly as he reapplied it.</p><p>He shook out his limbs neck, clenching and unclenching his fist before re-tucking his now wrinkled and dishevelled white shirt back into the tight leather jeans. Kevin had said it emphasized his tiny waist, making him seem like the perfect target for the men that frequented this club for business.</p><p>Lando tried not too think too much about what he had done or how willing he had been to slip into that role, to follow orders he was uncomfortable with to get small amounts of information.</p><p>That was a question for when he was lying staring at the ceiling in his bedroom, weight of the world crashing down on him and letting that little part of himself that he tried to ignore free to pick at every scab and poke every bruise.</p><p>He closed his eyes, gulping down the feeling of being off kilter, and as he opened them, ready to step back onto the main floor and head towards the bar to play the shy, jilted lover, his phone buzzed three times.</p><p>A signal Nico had insisted on for checking up on him since the earrings only acted as a one-way microphone allowing those in the surveillance van to record his conversations.</p><p>Lando steeled himself, knowing that at the slightest hint of upset or discomfort, Kevin would pull him from the mission and Horner had made it clear Marko was already paying attention to him after his mishap in the raid.</p><p>He moved quickly, ducking out into the smoking area and spotting the perfect cover: a cigarette dispenser. He made quick work of the coins he had tucked into his wallet, purchasing a pack of cigarettes, and borrowing a light from a drunk woman who disappeared within seconds as her friends moved back to the dance floor inside.</p><p>Lando tucked himself into a corner, pout back in place and sniffling to himself softly so no one would come close as he pulled out his decoy phone and hitting Nico’s contact number which was saved under, Hulk.</p><p>‘Took you a little long to answer the phone kid’, Nico greeted softly as he tucked the phone between ear and elbow to allow his hands free to slip a cigarette from the box, ‘Mother Hen was about to storm the building to get his duckling back’.</p><p>‘Hens don’t have ducklings’ you imbecile’, Kevin hissed over the line as Lando sparked the lighter holding the cigarette between his lips and raising his hands to light it, ‘Lando, are you okay?’.</p><p> Lando took a second to tuck the lighter away, taking a slow inhale and letting the smoke settle in his lungs. It burned after not smoking for so long, but he didn’t cough as he exhaled through his nose, watching the smoke curl in front of him.</p><p>‘Lando, do you need us to pull you out?’, Kevin’s nervous voice brought his attention back to the conversation, and away from the familiar weight of smoke in his lungs and cigarette in between his fingers.</p><p>‘Sorry, was lighting my cigarette. He left me’, Lando whined loudly, subtly eyeing other smokers that had gotten too close, watching as they wandered off and dropping his tone to an almost whisper, ‘In smoking area, had to keep cover’.</p><p>‘Copy that Jaimie’, Nico tried to laugh, but even his tone sounded worried.</p><p>‘Lando….’, Kevin implored, question on the tip of his tongue and Lando knew he wouldn’t be able to go back in if Kevin was sweet with him.</p><p>‘I’m fine, I’m going to hang around till closing like we planned. Ham up the jilted lover role while waiting at the bar, if I feel I’m getting another bite then I will send an SOS text so you can turn the comms back on’, Lando reassured, taking another long drag from his cigarette, and flicking the burning ash.</p><p>‘Are you sure? You still want to head home alone?’, Kevin sighed, Lando could picture him squeezing Nico’s hand for comfort, and to stop himself coming in.</p><p>‘Yeah, I’m sure’, Lando reassured the two older detectives, ‘Did you get good info?’.</p><p>‘Yeah kid, you’re a natural at this. We know exactly where he is going, if you’re good Horner had given us orders to go meet up with the other three to make arrests’, Nico pipped up, Kevin muttering angrily in the background of the call, ‘Kevin wants to stay here. Horner told him no, that he can monitor in the van, but we’re needed at Giovinazzi’s, it’s a huge drug den and operation’.</p><p>‘Seriously guys, I’m fine. It’s two hours to close, most people saw me here with Dan, and will probably leave me alone or laugh about the poor little college boy that got led on’, Lando laughed, flicking more ash before taking a last drag from the dying cigarette and stubbing it out in the ash tray on the table near him.</p><p>‘You’ll SOS if you need us or get more info?’, Kevin asked anxiously.</p><p>‘Kev, if anything happens I will SOS, please don’t worry about me’, Lando reassured, biting his lip as he listened to Kevin hum unconvinced by Lando’s statements.</p><p>‘Check in when you’re on your way home kid’, Nico stated firmly, ‘Or I will let Kevin storm your apartment in the middle of the night’.</p><p>Lando turned his face away from the other smokers, allowing a grin to sneak through at the thought of Kevin showing up to grumble at him, and more than likely make sure Lando had eaten and wasn’t out wandering the streets.</p><p>They said their goodbyes, Lando tucking the phone and cigarettes into his pocket with his wallet and squared his shoulders to walk inside. He played up the shy role once more, glancing around and pouting, wrapping an arm across his chest as if he were uncomfortable with anyone looking at him, something that wasn’t far from the truth.</p><p>He tried not to glance to the VIP area despite the burning need to seek out a certain figure clad in leather, soft grey ands jeans so tight that they made his own leather ones look baggy.</p><p>He had almost hit the SOS before Dan had approached him. Almost walked out of the club and back to the van to say he couldn’t do this, that Kevin was right, and he had no training. That he wasn’t comfortable in the role. Anything to stop him wandering up those steps to where he shouldn’t go.</p><p>It had been a shock when he had spotted Lance by the dance floor as the lights flashed and pulsed around him. Even from a distance Lando could tell he had that smirk on his face, the one Lando had found creeping into more and more of his private thoughts despite knowing this road could only end in destruction for both of them.</p><p>Yet as the purple and blue lights washed over Lance as he leaned against the railings looking onto the dance floor, a gorgeous person in a skin-tight dress pressed against him, Lando had felt jealousy and want burning through him as if he had been struck by lightning.</p><p>Lando tried not to let thoughts of Lance derail him from surviving the next two hours as he grabbed a space at the bar, ordering a simple water with ice and a straw to create the illusion that he was drinking vodka, but the image of him with his head tilted back in laughter under the club lights was burned into his mind.</p><p>He tried to blame these feelings, the jealousy and lust, the pure unadulterated attraction that he couldn’t seem to shake, on the fact that his last relationship had been years ago with someone that looking back, was simply attracted to how much he needed someone at the time. Not to Lando or his personality, but to that part of him that craved to have someone to curl up with at the end of the day and just exist with.</p><p>He fiddled with the straw in his drink, laughing softly to himself as he realised, he didn’t need to act the part of the jilted lover. He already felt like one when he had watched Lance ascend those steps, watched him press a kiss to the other persons cheek and help them up the stairs.</p><p>As much as Lando felt a pull to the older man, it was clear Lance’s interest had been a passing fancy. Lando a mere mystery to be solved, one that didn’t play the game Lance wanted and was tossed aside after the last bunch of returned roses.</p><p>Lando sighed, shaking his head, and running hand through his hair as he leaned on the bar. He’d needed to stop thinking about Lance, he thought to himself as he sipped at his water, and took out his phone, letting his shoulders slump as if he were waiting for a text that never came.</p><p>‘Why so blue, mon Cheri?’, a sultry voice came from his right, Lando tensing as lips brushed his ear and a hand gently ran down his back before it disappeared.</p><p>As he went to turn, to confront the stranger with a pout or a fuck off, Lando wasn’t sure which, someone appeared in front of him, leaning their hip against the bar and smirking softly at him as they let their eyes drift up and down Lando’s form, humming appreciatively.</p><p>Lando tried to control the shock he felt, hoping it didn’t read on his face as he stared at the person who had been pressed against Lance over an hour ago.</p><p>He was gorgeous in his black skin-tight dress with slit to the hip and chain bridging the gap drawing Lando’s attention to the pale, smooth skin of his thigh. From his artfully tousled hair and make-up, to the jewellery and heels the other was wearing, the man radiated sensuality and beauty, making Lando want to crawl under a rock for even attempting to look attractive.</p><p>‘Cat got your tongue, sweetheart? Or just a shy boy?’, the man teased, his smile soft and friendly despite the bright red lipstick that begged to be smudged.</p><p>Lando felt the jealousy flair within him irrationally once more, his mouth escaping him as it did often.</p><p>‘No, just remembering the lesson my parents taught me about not talking to strangers, so thanks, but no thanks’, Lando smirked, staring at the man dismissively and taking a pointed sip from his drink.</p><p>The man left out a huff, eyes narrowing slightly before he flagged down the bartender who immediately brought him a bright pink cocktail, before he turned to face Lando one more, adjusting a strap of his dress that had slipped off his shoulder.</p><p>‘The name is Charles, now we are not strangers, no?’, Charles smirked, long lashes flirting and a perfectly manicured hand reaching to touch Lando’s curls gently.</p><p>‘I’m still not interested’, Lando sighed, batting the hand away gently and leaning towards Charles, letting his lips brush the others cheek before whispering in his ear, ‘The package is pretty, but I have a feeling that’s all there is to it’.</p><p>Charles made an offend noise before chuckling softly as Lando pulled back. The hand that had played with his hair returned to tilt Lando’s head up as Charles towered over him, eyes darting to Lando’s lips.</p><p>‘Oh, sugar, the things under this pretty package would surprise you, and have you begging for forgiveness for insulting me if you gave me a chance’, Charles hummed, eyes dark as he stared at Lando’s lips, his own mouth parted slightly.</p><p>Lando had to admit, that he saw the appeal of Charles. Everything about this man screamed sin. From the way his fingers gently cradled his jaw to the way he pressed into Lando’s space, never touching, bodies separated by a few centimetres of space to make you want more.  </p><p>Two could play at this Lando though as he let his own lip’s part, lowering his lids at staring at the taller man from under his dark eyelashes. He could feel the blush on his cheeks, let himself shiver as if Charles attention were making him weak at the knees and wanting more as he leaned into the others touch.</p><p>‘So, prove me wrong pretty boy’, Lando gasped out softly, hand on Charles’s shoulder, thumb brushing his collarbone and squirming at the firm hand on his waist tugging him closer.</p><p>Charles took the bait, grinning as he slid the hand from Lando’s jaw into his curls, tugging his head to the position he wanted before kissing him. Soft, slow and seductive, a taste of what was to come, and Lando had to admit, Charles had skill and if he weren’t caught up in Lance’s brown eyes, he might have let this man take him home and teach him things about pleasure that no one else probably could.</p><p>But Lando had a game to play. One that involved whining into the kiss, pushing Charles back against the bar to pin him there and pressing against him sweetly. Once the other man had started to relax, letting Lando lead their little lip lock, he bit Charles’s lip and pulled back grinning wickedly before kissing up his jaw to his ear.</p><p>‘I’ve had better kisses, and I certainly don’t want to beg for Lance’s sloppy seconds, so tell him hi for me, and leave me the fuck alone’, Lando whispered darkly, before pulling back to pat Charles on the cheek softly, laughing at the shock and flashes of anger flitting across the others face.</p><p>Lando made use of his shocked state, grabbing his drink and walking away, making sure sway his hips as he did, feeling Charles’s eyes on his retreating figure.</p><p>He resettled at a small table just off the bar, a single stool meaning no one would try sit beside him, and grinned as he watched Charles storm through the crowd, nearly stumbling in his heels with the fast pace at which he took the stairs to the VIP area.</p><p>At least he wasn’t going to be bored while waiting for closing time to come.</p><p>                                                                        *</p><p>Lance tapped his fingers against his glass tumbler, watching the little pools ripple in the whiskey as the taste of tequila lingered on his lips.</p><p>Esteban sat in one of the comfortable plush chairs opposite him, licking the last drops of tequila from his shot glass before sucking on a wedge of lime, winking at Pierre who had returned from stashing Jev in one of their safe houses until they could arrange for his move and new identity.</p><p>It amused Lance greatly to watch Pierre glare at the other Frenchman, downing a shot of tequila before taking the tray of now empty shot and cocktail glasses in hand and storming towards the bar.</p><p>Esteban had never explained what exactly had happened between the two of them to start this strange game of push and pull they played outside of their jobs. Together they were a flawless team, operating with knowledge of each other’s skills and thoughts from years of training and working in tandem, yet outside of a work setting, they fought like school children trying to pull the others pigtails.</p><p>It didn’t help that Lance had caught Esteban sneaking out of Charles and Pierre’s room and apartment a few times before, leaving him even more curious and confused about what exactly the relationship was between his best friend and best gunman. If Charles was involved, Lance was probably better off not knowing the dark and dirty details of what those trio got up to.</p><p>‘Are you even paying attention to me?’, Esteban sighed, playing with one of his smaller butterfly knives, flicking it across his knuckles in boredom.</p><p>‘No’, Lance shrugged, offering his friend a teasing smirk at the offended noise the Frenchman made at his answer.</p><p>‘So fucking rude, how you and Chloe are related is beyond me’, Esteban sighed, his eyes light and teasing as he pointed the blade at Lance accusingly.</p><p>‘She often wonders the same thing, no idea why’, Lance laughed, sinking back into blush material of couch he was sighting on, glancing towards the stairs before taking a sip of his whiskey to wash away the tequila.</p><p>‘Wondering if Charles is chewing your little detective to pieces down there?’, Esteban laughed, raising his eyebrow, and sipping at his vodka.</p><p>Lance shrugged, rolling his eyes at the implication in Esteban’s tone. However, he was right. Lance was itching to walk to the railing, to glance out across his club and find wherever those two were among the sea of people, to see Lando talking on Charles in all is seductive glory.</p><p>Part of him wondered if Lando found Charles attractive. If the reason his advances were met with harsh dismissals was due to Lando wanting someone pretty, someone beautiful. Lance wondered if Lando would take one look at the scars he carried and turn away in disgust as others had before him, despite the little voice inside still telling him that him and Lando were one of the same.</p><p>‘Oh, looks like you don’t have to wonder for too much longer’, Esteban quirked an eyebrow, pointing towards the stairs where Charles was coming into view, almost tripping in his heels and face twisted with anger.</p><p>Lance felt himself automatically straightening, attention fully on the Monegasque beauty as he stormed up to their booth, snatching the vodka out of Esteban’s hand despite the Frenchman’s protest. He downed it quickly, slamming the glass back onto the table before sinking into the armchair beside Esteban’s, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting intensely at Lance.</p><p>Lance’s eyes couldn’t help but be drawn to the smudged state of Charles’s lipstick, feeling something begin to simmer in his stomach as his mind whirled with theories.</p><p>‘Did you find the Lance’s sweet little detective?’, Esteban questioned, staring mournfully at his drink before sighing at Charles’s glare.</p><p>‘Sweet? Sweet? What a fucking joke’, Charles all but snarled, slumping back into his chair, straightening the ends of his dress.</p><p>‘Did something happen Charles?’, Lance questioned calmly despite his mind running a mile a minute, hung up on his smudged lipstick, and what looked like a glittering kiss mark on his sharp jaw.</p><p>‘He’s a demon. I do not know what you see in him Lance, he’s a bitch’, Charles glared, ‘Sure he is pretty, and a good kisser, but the shit he said to me? Unforgiveable! He called me your sloppy seconds’.</p><p>Lance choked on his sip of whiskey as Charles’s words washed over him. The simmering in his stomach exploding into white hot jealousy at the thought of Charles kissing the man that was meant to be his. The one he was desperate to get a chance with, to show him he wasn’t horrible and could be sweet and kind.</p><p>Charles had kissed Lando when Lance couldn’t even get the detective to give him the time of day.</p><p>‘You kissed someone? Without h it with me?’, Pierre’s voice made Lance refocus on the people before him as Charles jumped, having not noticed his boyfriend returning with a tray of new drinks.</p><p>Lance reached for a tequila shot, downing it as Charles stood to coo soothingly at his boyfriend, wrapping his arms around Pierre’s neck as the man pulled him into a fierce kiss. Obviously unhappy with Charles not filling him in on his plans. Pierre was under no illusions about the things Charles got up to in his role as a honeypot, but usually he ran them by Pierre, so they didn’t blindside him.</p><p>Lance ignored the looks Esteban was giving him as he sucked on lemon wedge, his own empty shot in hand. Instead, he grabbed his packet of cigarettes off the table, catching the lighter as Esteban tossed it to him and turning away from the group.</p><p>He knew if he stayed, he may snap at Charles for how far he took his recon on Lando.</p><p>He tried to push the images out of his mind as he made his way down the stairs and through the crowds. Tried not to think about if Lando had initiated the kiss as part of the cover he had to be playing tonight if the undercover surveillance van Pierre had spotted had anything to do with him being in the club.</p><p>He tried not to let the anger flare as thoughts of Lando in Charles’s arms. Lando wasn’t his. He had no say over who or what he did, especially with the detective showing outright disdain for him, and Lance was never one to wanted to force his attraction on someone.</p><p>Instead, he shook his head and let the cool air of the dimly lit smoking area wash over him, tilting his head to gaze at the sky through the glass awning that provided cover from any possible rain.</p><p>His fingers itched for a cigarette between them as he curled them around the box, pulling it from his jacket pocket and quickly getting a cigarette between his lips, ready to light when he heard a scuffle from the furthest end of the smoking area.</p><p>His eyes flickered towards the dark end, listening as someone laughed, taunting whoever they were with soft words. Lance hesitated for a moment, it could have easily been friends messing as was often the case, but the sharp ‘get off me’, had him tucking the cigarette back into the box and storming towards the source of the noise.</p><p>He might have been mafia, but Lance couldn’t stand those who used their power or strength to manipulate or force others into doing things they didn’t want.</p><p>‘Come on pretty boy, you were so ready to bend over for Dan, what makes me any different?’, someone laughed lowly, body crowding a smaller one against the wall.</p><p>‘That ugly ass face of yours for one thing, and the fact you had to corner me to even get me to talk to you. Now fuck off’, Lando’s voice cut through the air, tense and hint of distraught in his voice.</p><p>Lance moved automatically as the taller man’s hand reached out as if to touch Lando again, but it never made the mark.</p><p>The sound of the man’s yelp as Lance twisted his arm backwards, wrist breaking from the pressure and awkward angle echoed through the air.</p><p>‘He said no, now walk away’, Lance said lowly, the threat obvious in his voice as he looked at the man whose eyes were tearing. The man flicked one last look at Lando, Lance squaring his shoulders and stepping in front of him pointedly, before he walked away, dragging his broken wrist.</p><p>‘I could have handled that myself, I’m not a damsel in distress’, Lando tried to spit out, but as Lance glanced back at him the detective’s voice was shaky.</p><p>As Lance turned to look at him, Lando was leaning against the wall. A cigarette lay burning by his feet, his eyes were a little wide and wild as he stared at Lance in a weak glare. He seemed to be shivering, whether it was from the cool night air or the scare, Lance wasn’t sure.</p><p>All he was sure of was that the detective’s breathing was shaky, breaths heavy and he looked paled, overwhelmed, and those blue green eyes were rimmed with what looked like unshed tears.</p><p>‘Lando’, Lance stated soothingly, maintaining the distance between them, ‘I think you’re having a panic attack right now’.</p><p>Lando barked out a laugh, sliding down the wall into an awkward squat, burying his face in his knees and taking deep breaths.</p><p>‘No shit Sherlock’, he managed to wheeze out, the low tone making Lance’s heart ache for the detective. Knowing that tonight must have been outside his comfort zone, pushing beyond the detectives introverted nature from what he had observed in their encounters and his own recon on the man.</p><p>Lance crouched, using his broad frame to block Lando from view, not wanting anyone to see him in his vulnerable state as the detective tilted his head back to rest against the wall, muttering numbers in a mix of Belgian and English, eyes fixed on the stars.</p><p>Noticing that the detective was still shivering, his thin white shirt unbuttoned and dipping off one his shoulder, exposing him to the cold, Lance moved slightly, reaching to removed his own leather jacket.</p><p>‘Don’t’, Lando’s voice called out softly, making Lance pause in confusion, ‘Don’t touch me’.</p><p>Lance felt his heart break a little, eyes meeting Lando’s own, seeing just how vulnerable the other was in this state.</p><p>Wordlessly he moved slowly, taking off his jacket and holding it out to the other as Lando eyed him cautiously.</p><p>‘You’re cold, I won’t touch you, just take my jacket to keep the wind off you’, Lance spoke softly, smiling gently at the other man.</p><p>Lando nodded, shuffling forward a little to allow Lance to drape the jacket around his shoulders. Never touching Lando, only the stiff leather as he adjusted it to cover the other man before sinking into silence, sitting on the ground in front of him.</p><p>He kept his gaze fixed on a point above Lando, affording him a small piece of privacy as he got his breathing under control. He had to fight a smile down, catching Lando staring at him while leaning into the warmth of his jacket, sparking a warmth that replaced his earlier jealously.</p><p>‘I can’t believe I’m saying this but…. thank you’, Lando whispered, drawing Lance’s gaze back to him as the detective straightened up a little, peaking at Lance from under tousled curls.</p><p>‘No need’, Lance shook his head, standing and offering his hand to Lando, ‘Almost closing, do you need a ride home?’.</p><p>Lando hesitated, glancing between Lance’s face and his hand, before placing his in Lance’s. Lance had to look away at the touch, feeling sparks dance across his skin as he wrapped his fingers around Lando’s hand to pull the younger up from the floor gently.</p><p>‘This doesn’t mean I like you’, Lando huffed, giving Lance a glare that was diminished by his hand still clasped in Lances and his free hand holding the jacket close around him.</p><p>‘I wouldn’t dare to dream Detective Norris’, Lance teased, dropping the detective’s hand as he reached for his phone, ‘Just let me send a text and I’ll get us out of here’.</p><p>Lando nodded, eyeing him for a second before fishing his own phone out of his pocket. Fingers flying across the screen to send a message of his own, assumedly to his partner to let him know he was heading home for the night. From what little he had seen of the squad together or picked up from inside sources, two detectives seemed particularly interested in keeping Lando safe.</p><p>It made Lance laugh, the thought of anyone of those detectives being safe from Marko and Horner.</p><p>‘So, is this where you get to wow me with your fancy car and driver while trying to hit on me? Cause I’ve had a really long night and I just want to go to bed’, Lando joked, his smile a little awkward as if he weren’t sure his humour would fly with Lance, and only endearing him more to Lance as he bit his lip.</p><p>‘Actually, I took my bike here’, Lance replied, leading the detective towards a small side gate at the edge of the smoking area that backed onto the walkway towards the staff car park where Lance had stashed his bike.</p><p>The whistled Lando let out after laying eyes on his custom black matte Yamaha made Lance smirk as he handed him his helmet. Ignoring the raised eyebrow and questioning look he got when he settled himself on the bike, kicking the stand up and waiting for Lando to climb on behind him.</p><p>He thought to himself as Lando slid onto the seat behind him, pressing close and wrapping strong arms around his waist as Lance revved the bike to life, that if this was the most, he got from Lando, this closeness born out of a moment of vulnerable trust, he would take it and not complain.</p><p>The journey to the apartment complex was over too soon. The streets empty apart from a few taxis and Ubers at this hour of the morning, allowing Lance to leisurely guide the bike through empty roads, making sure to stop at the stoplights to appeal to Lando’s detective sensibilities, but soon he was parking the bike in Lando’s guest spot, and accepting the helmet back, fighting down the urge to smooth the detective’s curls.</p><p>‘I guess this is where I say goodbye’, Lance smiled, letting his eyes admire the image of Lando wrapped in his jacket, small yet strong as he held Lance’s gaze with questioning eyes.</p><p>He didn’t speak a word, Lance taking the silence as the clear dismissal it was and bracing himself for further cold rejection the next time he reached out to the detective.</p><p>Yet as he turned to get on the bike, helmet lifted towards his own head, and thoughts of drowning his sorrows with the good bottle of whiskey Jenson had sent him, a hand wrapped around his wrist. Tugging him to turn back around to where Lando was standing.</p><p>The younger man’s eyes were wide, a slight fear and hint of panic back in those green blue eyes making Lance’s chest ache at the vulnerability. Another part of him flared with anger again, demanding that they track down the man that had made Lando feel this uncomfortable in his own skin.</p><p>But all his thoughts died, leaving him silent and hopeful as two words filled the empty space between them in the garage.</p><p>‘Please stay’.</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lance’s eyes burned with tiredness, a dry feeling settling across his lids making him rub at them as he held back a yawn.</p><p>It had been a sleepless night, yet Lance didn’t regret a moment of it as reopened his eyes, letting them admire for the hundredth time in the last few hours the man curled up away from him.</p><p>Lando was curled up at one corner of his couch, body facing Lance with his head resting on the plush cushions he owned. The blanket he had dragged from his bedroom to throw over the rested on Lance’s legs, but was tucked up around the detective’s chin, leaving only his face and curls visible. Aside from one hand that had reached out shyly to him after the detective had startled awake from what Lance assumed to be a bad dream.</p><p>Lando hadn’t really said a word, just let his hand hoover over one of the ends of Lance’s t-shirt until Lance had nodded, watching with a small smile as the detective blinked tiredly at him and grasped at the end of his shirt. The idea that he somehow brought Lando comfort after a night that had left the detective shaken made Lance want to reach out and hold him, to run fingers through those curls and kiss his forehead to sooth away the tension that flickered across the young man’s face every so often.</p><p>He pushed those desires deep down, knowing that if he wanted any chance with the detective that it had to be a slow game. One of taking cues from the other man and letting him dictate the pace of any possible relationship that could develop from the sparks and small amount of trust that had grown between them last night.</p><p>Lance still couldn’t believe he was here. That Lando had uttered those two words, vulnerable and scared, yet trusting Lance to be with him when he didn’t even reach out to his friends or co-workers to come stay with him.</p><p>Lance had been his first choice, and it was a thought that filled Lance’s chest with warmth as he watched over the younger man.</p><p>He wouldn’t label it as trust, their relationship too unstable and built only on fleeting moments for any type of trust to have developed fully, but there was something there. Something about Lance had told Lando’s instincts, ones that should have screamed at him to run and never look back, that Lance was safe. That he would keep Lando safe from whatever was worrying the young detective when he uttered those words.</p><p>Lando’s sigh drew Lance from his thoughts and back to focusing on the young man, watching as he stretched slightly in his sleep under the covers, nose scrunching up. His face tensed then softened, and Lance knew deep down that it was only a matter of time before the little detective awoke.</p><p>And it pained him.</p><p>It pained him knowing the inevitable would happen. That a freak out would follow. That the detective would lash out, thinking clearly now that he had slept, and all threats were gone. That he would have to leave with the detective’s dismissal ringing in his ears and a heavy weight in his chest as trudged back to where Esteban was probably waiting, knowing look on his face and promises to maim the detective for effecting Lance this much.</p><p>It pained him to know as he lay there, fingers twitching to run through messy brown curls that this may have been his only chance with the other man, but if this were all he got, he would take it.</p><p>He would treasure it and keep it as his, buried deep down where he kept all his favourite memories. Tuck it away with his mother’s smile and father laughter, of Chloe teaching him how to ride a bike, of the first time Esteban called him his brother with a wide smile and missing front teeth, memories of Charles and Pierre goofing around, memories of those he cherished. The weight of Lando’s arms around him, the little chuckle he let out when Lance accelerated that got snatched by the wind, the way he looked with that spark in his eyes that made Lance shiver.</p><p>All of it would be tucked away as a what if, a daydream that slipped through his fingers, because guys like Lance whose hands were covered in blood didn’t get guys like Lando Norris.</p><p>Even with the mysteries in the detective’s teenage years.</p><p>Another little yawn caught Lance’s attention, taking him from his wallowing to the present.</p><p>Lando had shifted, nose scrunching up and eyes fluttering behind closed lids before they blinked open softly. Green blue eyes meeting his sleepily, blinking a few times before recognition set in, the hand in Lance’s t-shirt tightened unsurely as a blush settled across is cheeks as he stared wide eyed at him.</p><p>‘You stayed?’, Lando muttered softly, thumb rubbing at the material of Lance’s t-shirt almost shyly.</p><p>‘You asked’, Lance replied, turning towards him, letting his hand fall to where Lando’s spare hand had emerged from under the blanket, brushing the tips of Lando’s fingers with his.</p><p>The little smile he got in return as the younger ducked his head into the blankets awkwardly as Lance tried to fight down a smile and the flutters in his chest.</p><p>‘You didn’t have to, I didn’t think the big bad mafia boss would have time to make sure his mortal enemy, a detective slept well’, Lando laughed softly, looking away from Lance towards the end.</p><p>‘Lucky I’m not the boss then isn’t it?’, Lance joked, before offering the detective a serious look, ‘Jokes aside, I would have done this for anyone that needed it. There may be things in my line of…work…that are violent, but we don’t leave people behind, especially when they need someone’.</p><p>Lando nodded, letting go of the end of Lance’s shirt as his phone went off across the room where they had plugged them in before crashing on the couch. All thoughts of the outside world forgotten in the little bubble of safety they had created, but now reality was pulling the detective away from him as Lando detangled himself from his blanket.</p><p>He took a moment to watch as the other stretched, trying not to linger on the shape of Lando’s ass in his tight soft grey sweatpants, or the cut of his hipbones and hint of a tone stomach when his sleep shirt rose up as the younger raised his arms above his head, fingers interlocking to stretch before walking to his phone.</p><p>Lance stood, folding the blanket neatly and watching Lando from the corner of his eyes. Watching for the change he knew would come as Lando scrolled through messages.</p><p>He watched as Lando slipped, slipped out of his sleepy state, shoulders shifting and tensing. Those eyes, those soft eyes that had gazed at him moments ago shielded and face settling into the neutral face of a detective before he turned back to Lance.</p><p>‘Thank you for staying, but um…. I shouldn’t have asked this of you. We can’t do whatever this is, its dangerous. And not just for me, but for you’, Lando cleared his throat, fiddling with his phone as Lance sighed.</p><p>‘Don’t try to justify your little freak out by pretending you’re worried about me, Detective Norris’, Lance smiled sharply, placing the blanket on the couch and turning to look at the smaller man, ‘We both know you received a message from one of your squad and it was a slap in the face. That the bubble burst and I’m back to being that guy, the one you should arrest but won’t’.</p><p>Lando clenched his jaw, looking down at the phone in his hand and shifting into a defensive stance, and Lance wanted to laugh. The only things he would hurt the detective with was the truth, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to bring himself to lift a hand against the detective.</p><p>Esteban had warned him last night not to get attached.</p><p>Lance didn’t have the heart to tell him it was too late, that it wasn’t fascination. It was something deeper and Lance knew it would end in blood.</p><p>‘I’m sorry’, Lando sighed, hand running through his hair tugging at strands nervously, ‘I am freaking out. You are everything I stand against. Everything I have been trained to take down in order to protect people. You being sweet isn’t something I can just suddenly be okay with. I’m not naïve Lance, I know that between us you have more bodies in your closet than I will ever come across in my career if I live to retirement’.</p><p>His argument was sound. Lance couldn’t fault him his confusion. Lando had grown up in a world where everything was black and white. His parents probably read him tales about good and evil, had him watch Disney movies as a kid and then believe the detectives, the police, were the heroes in real life.</p><p>He didn’t grow up in the shades of grey that Lance did. Didn’t see the police that covered up murders, sold girls in sex trading only for Lance to watch his father free them and the police disappear, his father knowing a cop would never get tried for his crimes. Their world was greys, morals were ambiguous, and a kill was a kill.</p><p>Lando would have to account for every bullet he fired. Lance couldn’t even keep count of those who had lost their lives at his feet without him even blinking.</p><p>‘I might have a high body count Lando, but don’t paint what I am as black and white’, Lance grabbed his jacket from the coffee table and shrugging it on, ‘There is no such thing as clear-cut justice or evil, detective. You’re going to learn that the hard way. I can only hope that it doesn’t get you killed someday’.</p><p>‘Is that a threat?’, Lando’s voice was low, dangerous and his eyes dark as they met Lance’s.</p><p>Lance took his time, tilting his head and considering the detective with a smirk before walking closer to him, stepping into the detective’s space but never touching him. He tilted his head down to maintain eye contact as he reached behind him to grab his phone, turning it back on and noticing the way the detective shivered when his breath ghosted his cheek bone. He tucked his phone into the pocket of his jacket, but stayed in the others space, Lando having to tip his head up slightly to look at him.</p><p>‘It’s not a threat, its reality. One I don’t want for you, but I can’t force you to see the world as it is when you’re content to live in black and white’, Lance muttered lowly, letting his eyes drop to Lando’s lips as he tucked a piece of paper with his personal phone number into the pocket of the detectives  sweatpants, ‘If you ever want to see the world as it is, to understand the things at work that make your skin crawl because you know they’re wrong despite no one else noticing them, you call me. Otherwise, we are done here’.</p><p>Lando swallowed, his pupils dilated as Lance stared at him, almost daring the detective to make the move that both of them wanted him to. Their lips only a hairs breath apart, noses almost touching, and Lance could feel the movement of Lando’s hands near his thighs, as if the detective wanted to reach out for him, resolve breaking as his lips parted and Lance felt his skin buzz with the tension between them.</p><p>The sound of his phone angrily vibrating in his hand broke the moment between them.</p><p>Lando jumped away from him as if he had been burned as a text from Esteban flashed across the screen along with multiple missed calls ranging up to three hours ago.</p><p>The last text simply reading, ‘Get home now.’, sending a chill down Lance’s spine. Esteban never being one to use full stop’s unless it was serious.</p><p>‘Got to go bury a body?’, Lando had turned away from Lance, shoulders tense and words stony.</p><p>‘Actually, I have to go help get a man and his family out of the city before Alonso murders them in cold blood, because unfortunately detective, your lot don’t care about the people caught in his crossfire unlike us’, Lance bit back, not giving the other a second chance before he was out the door, worry and disappointment swimming under his skin, hiding the anger that wanted to break free of his chest.</p><p>He heard his name being called as he reached the evaluators and everything in him wanted to turn around, to turn back to where Lando was probably standing in the doorway of his apartment, still sleep rumpled and apologetic. Begging for Lance to kiss him and spark that flame that was growing before the text came in, but he held firm.</p><p>He was done running to Lando. If the detective wanted him, he could be the one to reach out, Lance thought to himself as he reached the underground parking lot where he had left his bike the night before.</p><p>The ride from the upper side to where the family home resided on the outskirts, tucked away behind gates and security, was quiet. Lance easily zipping through traffic, using back alleys and side streets to avoid the noon rush, and entering the property from the back, waving at the security that had worked the property since he was a teen and letting himself into the garage, pulling in beside Chloe’s own Aston Martin.</p><p>The sight of the sleek black car had his stomach dropping. Chloe rarely ever missed a day of work for mafia business unless something was seriously wrong. She preferred to keep her pretences, preferred the comfort of knowing that no one would ever expect the female CEO that was working every day, spent every waking moment looking after her employees and company, to be running a powerful mafia family. It was her safety blanket.</p><p>The last time Chloe had stayed home from work for business and had Esteban send Lance an SOS was when their mother was shot in targeted attack on the restaurant during a dinner with Chloe. The hired hand having attacked knowing that the majority of mafia spouses and daughters dined in this particular restaurant, an inside job as only those in the know would connect the women in there with the mafia.</p><p>Chloe had been burning with anger, her white blouse splattered with blood and fists clenched. Lance had helped her track down the hired hand and they had taken their time getting information from him. Their mother had recovered, but the hired hand and his employer were quickly dispatched at the hands of the siblings.</p><p>The possibilities on why she was home and the memory weighed on Lance as he jogged up the steps from the garage to the kitchen. He nodded to Romain, the family’s cook who regarded him with a warm but tense smile, smiling pointing towards the dining room where low voice rumbled under the door.</p><p>‘I don’t like being used as a toy in sick games, Chloe. You know this’, Max Verstappen’s anger laced voice greeted Lance as he slipped into the room.</p><p>The Dutchman sitting slumped in a chair, pointing a knife at Chloe before tossing it to his partner, Daniel Riccardo who sat beside him. Th Australian was tense, but still offered Lance a smile even as he rested a hand on the back of Max’s neck, squeezing it gently till the other man relaxed.</p><p>‘And I’m not using you as a toy Max, when have we ever treated you as such?’, Chloe sighed, hands gripping the table and staring the younger man down, ‘We have always respected your contracts and needs, we only involve you if needed. And if I can remind you, you came to me with this information this morning’.</p><p>Esteban had pulled out the chair next to him, gesturing FOR Lance to sit down but the noise had disrupted the conversation, drawing his sisters glare towards him as her eyes narrowed.</p><p>‘Where the ever-loving fuck have you been?’, Chloe demanded, ‘I have been trying to reach you since Max and Daniel showed up at 7am, its noon Lance. Not even Esteban knew where you were, Pierre is out driving around to make sure Fernando didn’t fucking gut you in an alley because Alonso sent someone after Giovinazzi last night and Marcus got shot before Ilott or Giovinazzi could drag him out of the way. I have been here since 5am trying to deal with this mess and you were nowhere to be found Lance.’.</p><p>Lance lowered himself into the seat carefully, aware of all eyes on him. Even Esteban was watching him curiously, a hint of knowing in his eyes, while texting Pierre to let him know Lance wasn’t dead in a drain somewhere. Guilt pooled in his stomach, a hot sick feeling at the thought of Marcus getting hurt while he was watching Lando sleep crept into his bones.</p><p>‘Is Marcus okay?’, Lance ignored Chloe’s question, hand clenched on his own thigh to keep him grounded. Trying to ignore the facts that if he hadn’t noticed Lando’s distress, he would have probably been there to protect Marcus.</p><p>‘Shot to the thigh. He’s going to be out of commission for a bit but Ilott and Giovinazzi got him to Albon in the neutral zone pretty quick, Jenson is seething over this. And you disappeared. So do not make me ask again Lance, where the fuck were you while our deals were going to shit?’.</p><p>‘I was with…a friend’, Lance hesitated, feeling his sisters glare intensify.</p><p>‘You were with….a friend? You were out getting fucked while I was here dealing with our men being shot?’, Chloe seethed, shaking off her fiancées hand as Scotty reached out to touch her soothingly.</p><p>The atmosphere was tense, even Max seemed to be glaring at him. Although that wasn’t an unusual sight to see. The Dutchman worked well with him, but was not quick to trust, even after all these years, and still regarded Lance with a wary caution.</p><p>He thought the tension would continue to build until either Max or Chloe erupted once more, but he was wrong.</p><p>It was broken by Daniel laughing brightly, reaching across the table to fist bump Lance as he stared at the Australian pondering if he had a death wish.</p><p>‘Nice one mate, get in there’, Daniel smiled brightly, Max wacked him across the back of the head as Chloe turned away from the table, fingers twitching as if she wanted to reach for one of her guns.</p><p>Lance eyed the exit, trying to calculate if he could make it out the door if she did reach for the gun. His sister had great aim, and Lance had gangly limbs. The odds weren’t in his favour, although luckily, Chloe simply took a deep breath and turned back around to face them.</p><p>‘Lance, let Esteban know where you are going so he came find you if you don’t answer. I don’t want any of us exposed to Alonso, even Charles is being pulled from any planned information grabs with them, it’s too unstable to trust anyone right now until Jenson reaches out with his information’, Chloe warned, before turning to Max, waving a hand at him, ‘Fill him in, I need a drink’.</p><p>No one dared mention the fact it was only noon.</p><p>‘Dan got a call at 5am last night from Alonso. Wanted to talk contracts for a job, I went as look out as usual, just to make sure Alonso wasn’t trying to take out Dan and then me’, Max explained, leaning back in his chair and resting a hand on the Australians thigh, ‘Only when we got there, he wasn’t alone. Marko was with him. Alonso didn’t want us for escorting shipments, or boy dumps, he wants us to dig up information on an old OD case. It was an assault and murder covered up, promised a hefty sum to chase down leads, and get rid of anyone poking around in the case. Wants it left undisturbed. Marko made a deal with Alonso to support his bid for more territory’.</p><p> He felt himself freeze as Max turned those stone-cold blue eyes to him.</p><p>‘Your name was mentioned before we even left to go look at the case and think about taking the job. They know you’ve been digging around this case, even if you don’t know the details, they want you dead. Alonso wants a hit on you, and on Jev, he knows he is missing’, Max elaborated before striking the final blow, ‘So the question is Lance, what the fuck did you stumble on that has brought Marko back into this game and why does he want us to place a target on the back of one of his own detectives?’.</p><p>                                                            *</p><p>Lando tried not to show his nerves as Carlos poked and prodded at him. The older detective tugging at the crop top he was wearing, humming as his eyes admired the tight jeans Kevin had thrown to them when Lando had come back from the afternoon coffee run with Carlos. He hadn’t even gotten to bite into his own food before Kevin had appeared, shoving the bag of clothes and makeup into his hands as Nico plucked the coffee carriers and sandwich bags from his hands.</p><p>‘Ticktum won’t talk, Horner wants you to go in’, Kevin had gruffy explained, almost crushing the coffee cup he had taken from Carlos as he ushered them towards the meeting room, instructing Lando to change as fast as possible.</p><p>The operation from last night had worked. Kevin having texted him that morning while Lando was clinging to his bubble of fragile hope and trust with Lance, informing him they had stopped Ticktum completing his hit on Antonio Giovinazzi although shots had been fired. Giovinazzi and some of his men had escaped, but Ticktum hadn’t been fast enough.</p><p>The problem was that he refused to talk. Kevin and Nico had tried to work him for hours, offering him food and cigarettes in offer for information. Mark had taken a shot at it too, playing the friend role, attempting to win Ticktum over with jokes about how shitty the squad was and how he could get him out. Even Horner had tried, offering plea deals and protection only to get the same smug looks from Ticktum.</p><p>A look that had almost ended with Kevin punching him in the face if Nico hadn’t hauled him out of the interrogation.</p><p>That left Lando as their last hope, even though he wanted to crawl under his desk and hide. He had hoped after Daniel had left that night that it would be the end. That they would have the information they needed. Ticktum hadn’t looked like an overly hard target to break, all too willing to spill his secrets to Lando with a bat of his eyelashes and a hand on Ticktum’s arm. The memories of last night made his skin crawl as if thousands of bugs were scampering over his arms. Discomfort the only thing settled in his mind as he placed a hand on his stomach, trying not to wince as Carlos’s cold hands brushed his skin.</p><p>Lando wanted to go back to that morning, to those few moments where it was just him and Lance on that couch under the blanket. It had been safe. He had felt safe with Lance’s soft gaze on him, with the others t-shirt held between his fingers for comfort and the gentle brush of fingers against his sending sparks across his skin. He wanted everything to feel as right as it did in that moment when it was just them in the silence, connected by a brush of fingers and shy gazes.</p><p>Reality had come crashing in with the arrival of Kevin’s text and Lando still felt the weight of Lance’s parting words on his soul, knowing there was a part of him that understood what Lance was saying. A part that had questions about so many things, some in the past, and some now in the present. Yet he pushed it down, drowned that little voice and focused on what he had.</p><p>He a had a job to do. One that allowed him to protect others vulnerable to the cruelty of life. And if he had to don this crop top and tight jeans with some glitter and pout as Jaimie to get information, then he would continue to push down the voice that begged him to find a different way to interrogate Ticktum until he had achieved his object.</p><p>Whatever it takes, Horner had reminded him this morning, whispering the words to Lando as he had stood adjusting the map of the mafia territories in the meeting room, whatever it takes.</p><p>‘Are you sure you’re okay to do this? You’ve been off since this morning’, Kevin asked softly, the older having shooed Carlos to the side in order to adjust the earrings Lando was once again wearing as a wire.</p><p>He couldn’t bring himself to speak, simply nodding his head in response and swallowing the lump that had settled in his throat as Kevin stepped back, eyeing him sadly.</p><p>Lando ignored the look, stretching his arms and shaking out his body a little, letting his eyes close to get back into the mindset of Jaimie as he had the night before.</p><p>‘Of course he can. My little partner is a genius’, Carlos smiled, clapping Kevin on the shoulder as Lando smiled at him, ignoring the way the other’s eyes raked over his body once more, ‘Who could resist someone who looks as good as he does right now? Ticktum will be spilling his secrets in no time’.</p><p>Kevin stiffened a little at Carlos’s words, mouth opening as if he was prepared to scold him for inappropriate comments when a knock sounded at the door, Daniil peaking in and smiling at them shyly.</p><p>‘Ticktum is in the holding cell again, Horner wants Mark to bring Lando in. His height and demeanour should look like its enough to spook ‘Jaimie’, making Ticktum want to protect him’, Daniil explained, tossing an apologetic look at Lando.</p><p>‘Bastard’, Kevin hissed, stalking out of the room, Nico hot on his heels as Kevin grabbed his gym bag. Lando guessed he was going to work his anger at the position they were putting Lando in off at the precinct’s gym. Nico following to make sure the other didn’t injure himself.</p><p>He was so focused on his thoughts that he barely noticed Mark entering the room until he was beside him, face carefully black as he explained how he was going to manhandle Lando, instructing the smaller to struggle and whine as if it hurt. He promised he wouldn’t go too hard, leaving the acting to Lando to sell the scene, but Lando knew he would have bruises, his skin sensitive to pressure since he was a kid.</p><p>Mark brought him to the entrance of the holding cell before he twisted Lando’s arms behind him gently, placing pressure on his wrists with one hand while gripping the smaller detective’s shoulder with the other and roughly shoving him forward.</p><p>Lando began to cry, shocking the older detective slightly but he offered him a smile to let him know it was okay, that they were fake tears. Mark nodding and continuing to shove him forward while Lando complained and cried, trying to wriggle out of his hold as they walked passed some of the cells, some empty, some not.</p><p>Mark didn’t need to know that the tears were from discomfort and the war waging inside of Lando since Lance’s accusations that morning that haunted him.</p><p>‘Please let me go, you’re hurting me. Please stop’, Lando cried softly, whimpering as they neared where Ticktum was being held, letting his voice carry off the walls.</p><p>‘Shut up kid, nobody here cares about anything you have to say’, Mark growled roughly, entering the code to the cell before tossing Lando into it, slamming the door as the detective let out a little scared sob, stumbling into the middle of the cell with his head down. His hand coming up to brush at his eyes as he made his shoulders shake.</p><p>‘Jaimie? Oh baby no, what are you doing here beautiful?’, hands were on Lando’s shoulders, gentle as they pulled him into the others chest, one hand slipping up his neck to cup the back of his head.</p><p>‘Dan!’, Lando let out a sob of relief, arms scrambling to get a hold of the other. Playing up his desperation as he let the other sooth him, making soft noise as Daniel walked them to the bed in the corner of the cell, sitting them down with Lando tucked into his side, ‘I was so scared Dan’.</p><p>‘Hey, hey it’s okay. It’s okay. I’ll get you out of here, just tell me what happened’, Daniel comforted, placing a kiss on Lando’s forehead.</p><p>‘You never came back’, Lando made his voice small, clutching at the others t-shirt and trying not to think of Lance and how sweet he had been when Lando had reached out to him, ‘I called you a few times, but you didn’t answer. I left a voicemail before I went to bed, next thing I know there’s…there’s police at my door asking me if I know you and dragging me here. They think I did something, but they won’t tell me what’.</p><p>‘Oh, baby I’m so sorry’, Daniel sighed, pulling Lando into his lap and cradling him closer, one hand rubbing at the red marks on his arms from Mark’s manhandling, ‘They caught me last night at Giovinazzi’s, you leaving a voice mail ties you to me. It’s a misunderstanding, I’ll sort it out’.</p><p>‘How? They think I shot someone; they think I’m hiding drugs Dan. I just want to go home’, Lando whimpered, burying his head in the others shoulder, and letting a few more tears escape.</p><p>‘I’ll tell them, I’ll tell them it wasn’t you. If I confess, you go free’, he stated confidently resting a hand under the crop top on his back.</p><p>‘You need to tell them what you told me, maybe…maybe we can get a deal and be safe’, Lando whispered, placing a kiss on Daniel’s neck.</p><p>‘Alonso would kill me’, Daniel sighed, holding Lando closer, ‘No matter where we would go, he would kill me. I know too much’.</p><p>Lando pulled back, blinking away tears and sniffling sadly as he played with the hem of his top, letting out a soft ‘Oh’.</p><p>They sat in silence for a few moments. Only broken by Lando sniffling, weakly rubbing at the tears still rolling down his cheeks, the detective finding it hard to stop them since they had started earlier.</p><p>‘Sweetheart, you’re breaking me here’, Daniel whispered, wiping the tears from Lando’s face softly, looking at the detective worriedly.</p><p>‘I’m sorry, I’m just scared’, Lando replied, looping his arms around Daniel’s neck, ‘I don’t want to be here, but I don’t want them to hurt you’.</p><p>‘Alonso will be coming for me no matter what. Unless we get out and run. I know too much about his shipping and storage, he trusts me to man the docks on the north side for him. He trusts me with the hit list he has started working through, Giovinazzi was the start and I already fucked it up. It’ll be Ilott next before working up to the Button’s kid. I know his go to for hits aside from me, and too much about his empire crumbling, but maybe…maybe I can save this’, Daniel rambled, drawing random patterns on Lando’s skin nervously.</p><p>‘How Dan? I don’t think they’re letting us out’, Lando whispered, playing with the others hair.</p><p>‘There’s a detective on the second-floor squad, Hughes, he’s on the payroll. If I can get word to him, he’ll get us out. If I can get to Giovinazzi and Ilott, Alonso will forgive me. All I need is to get to the safehouse in Ricketts’s street, there’s a weapon cache their and its where Alonso keeps his war room. Everything I need to get to the Buttons is in that room. Attack at their kid’s university or the restaurant they go to, and it will look random. Couple of civilians thrown into the count, and its clear sailing’, Daniel explained calmly as if he wasn’t outlining murder plots while dropping a kiss on Lando’s shoulder, ‘After that it moving the product from the docks into Button’s territory while their distracted, dismantle from their grief. Alonso will give us a cut, it’s the only way’.</p><p>Lando let him ramble further, asking questions every so often about the ins and outs of the idea. Getting Daniel to give him more locations and plots, dates, and key players, as Lando cuddled into him softly until he heard footsteps starting to echo down the hall.</p><p>‘It’ll be okay, I’ll say I will only talk to Hughes’, Daniel reassured as he kissed Lando softly, taking the others shift in mood as a sign of fear.</p><p>Instead, it was relief coursing through Lando. Relief that this was over, that as soon as that door opened, he could go wash Daniel’s touch off him. Get changed back into his own clothes and hopefully get to eat his lunch before Horner threw another request at him for the rest of his shift. Maybe even Kevin would let him steal his hoodie again.</p><p>‘Oh Daniel, I know it will be okay’, Lando sighed, smiling softly at the way Daniel smiled so trustingly at him as he cupped his face.</p><p>The door opened, this time Kevin appearing, leaning against the frame as he nodded at Lando.</p><p>‘All done kid, lets go’, Kevin smirked, holding a hand out to Lando as he removed himself from Daniels’s limbs.</p><p>‘Jaimie….’, Daniel’s confusion was clear as he stood up, half reaching out to Lando who offered him a smirk, unclipping the earrings, and dropping them into Kevin’s hand.</p><p>‘Oh Daniel, don’t be so naïve next time a random guy lets you hit on him and ask about your drug running business, it’s not a cute look’, Lando laughed, stepping out of reach and heading towards Kevin, ‘Did you get everything on tape?’.</p><p>‘Sure did kid, let’s go get you change. Nico picked you up a new sandwich, he stress ate yours while watching you trick the idiot over there’, Kevin laughed, draping an arm around Lando’s shoulders, and guiding him from the room.</p><p>The confused, hurt look on Daniel’s face as the door swung shut, locking clicking harshly as the reality of what had happened set in, left a sick satisfaction in Lando’s stomach as he turned his back on him.</p><p>The discomfort still lurked under his skin, waiting for a moment of vulnerability to allow itself to rear its head, but Lando allowed himself to enjoy this little victory.</p><p>‘Did Nico actually eat my sandwich?’, Lando laughed, looking up at Kevin who offered him a smirk.</p><p>‘Only half, I ate the other half. Mark told us we were acting worse then he was when he met his kids first boyfriend’, Kevin laughed, holding the door back to the squad headquarters open for Lando.</p><p>The main room was empty except for Nico who was sitting on Lando’s desk, wiggling a bag of food at the younger detective and a steaming cup of tea beside him. A peace offering for having eaten his sandwich while monitoring the two hours he had been in the cell with Ticktum.</p><p>Lando reached for the tea, only for Kevin to grip the back of his shirt, pointing him towards the meeting room before pressing a hoodie into his hands.</p><p>‘Get change, it will help you feel better’, Kevin smiled softly before dropping into Lando’s desk chair, settling his hand near Nico’s and hooking their pinkies together as Nico scrolled through his phone.</p><p>Lando couldn’t help but smile at how in tune they were as he headed towards the meeting room, checking it was empty before heading in and locking the door.</p><p>The way Nico knew what Kevin needed, the wordless communication between them made Lando ache for something that sweet. Something safe, and his mind couldn’t help but drift back to last night.</p><p>Somehow between Lance finding him in the club to that moment on the couch, Lando’s brain had associated the other with the word safe. His brain arguing that Lance had been gentle with him. That anyone else would have ignored what was happening in the darkest area of the smoking longue, that they wouldn’t sit with someone having a panic attack and then spend the night on their couch, just to make sure they felt safe.</p><p>Yet Lance had.</p><p>He had every opportunity to use Lando’s weakness against him, to buy him drinks and use that as way to get what Lando had clearly thought he had wanted. Sex without any commitment. That he was seeking the thrill of fucking his enemy a detective that was meant to arrest him. That he wanted the power that came with breaking Lando into basic instincts and watching him crumble under the guilt.</p><p>Before last night Lando would have place him and Daniel in the same category of douchebag, but now as he stood dress in his own jeans and Kevin’s hoodie, the piece of paper with Lance’s number written in elegant script and signed with his signature L.S. in cursive, Lando could feel himself smiling at the thought of the other and the way his hair stuck up funnily after a night on the couch.</p><p>He thought of how Lance had been ready to call it a night after making sure he got home safe. Of the man that stayed.</p><p>It only took a matter of moments for Lando to tap the numbers into his phone, hitting dial before he could rethink his decision.</p><p>‘Stroll speaking who is this?’.</p><p>‘Someone who was hoping to apologise for freaking out on you this morning’.</p><p>‘Well colour me surprised detective, I didn’t think you’d ever use this number’.</p><p>‘I’m full of surprises, Lance. Maybe it’s time you got to find out a few of them’.</p><p>‘Detective Norris are you flirting with me?’.</p><p>The delighted laughter that accompanied Lance’s response, made Lando smile, biting his lip softly, letting out a soft laugh, glad the other couldn’t see the blush rising on his cheeks as he replied.</p><p>‘So what if I am Mr.Stroll?’.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hey everyone!</p><p>Hope all is well! And I hope you enjoyed the roller-coaster that is Lando's emotions in this chapter!<br/>Come scream at me in the comments!</p><p>Also want to say that updates may slow down a little. I've had an unexpected family emergency that could get worse. I plan to keep writing, but just posting may be further apart for a while!</p><p>Stay safe &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lando could feel Kevin staring at him. The other detective’s eyes critical, a look in his eyes letting Lando know everything about his body language was being analysed right now was they stood waiting for the squad’s afternoon coffee orders.</p><p>Kevin had volunteered the two of them for the run. Lando had suspected that he had something he wanted to say to him in private. The other having been a bit more protective with him after everything with Ticktum, still feeling responsible for not fighting Horner and Marko on using Lando.</p><p>Although Lando appreciated the concern, it felt suffocating at times. He was an adult, even if he was only in his early twenties. He had been relying on himself since he was a teenager and had distanced himself from his parents as much as he could without going for emancipation, knowing he would never win the rights to it because they were so well respected. That and the fact that his issue with them never stemmed from them being horrible parents because they weren’t.</p><p>The newly deposited money in his old bank account after he mentioned looking into getting motorcycle lessons and looking at bikes proved how desperate they were to still maintain any relationship he allowed, even if it was through cash.</p><p>Yet he knew what Kevin wanted to talk about and the way he was watching him right now had little to do with Ticktum, and everything to do with how Lando had been glued to his phone for the past two weeks.</p><p>Ever since that phone call with Lance, Lando had been in contact with the other regularly. He had even saved Lance in his phone under Grey, referencing the speech Lance had given him in the apartment that morning they almost kissed. When Lando was tempted to throw caution to the wind and burry his fingers in thick dark hair as he finally got a feel for those thick lips he wanted to kiss desperately.</p><p>After their call, they had met up that night for dinner. Nothing like Lance’s first attempt. There was not five-star hotel with a fancy restaurant or private suite. Instead Lando had found himself being whisked away on the back of Lance’s gorgeous motorcycle once more, the mafia boss smiling sweetly at him as he had handed him a helmet engraved with a little L.N at one of the edges, making Lando blush as the other helped him strap it on. </p><p>Lance had whisked him out of town, crossing city lines to a small little sleepy town an hour away where a quaint little diner where the wait staff greeted Lance with a soft pat on the cheek. Lance had explained to Lando quietly over some great burgers and chips, while sipping on a strawberry milkshake that he and his friend, Esteban, had saved the family from a hit due to the diner not doing as well as the people they paid for protection wanted so they had stepped in. Lance had explained that a lot of the time he was doing things like this. Taking on debt for people in trouble from gangs and giving them protection. Half the time he admitted to taking no fees from them as his family didn’t need it.</p><p>Lando was under no falsehoods about his job though. Lance having admitted softly that he did do things outside of the law, that Lando had been right about him having a closet full of skeletons, some for reasons that were justifiable such as child abusers or rapists, but others were simply to maintain power or punishment for betrayals.</p><p>It had been a lot to take in as he sat there, picking at his chips, and sipping at his own vanilla milkshake. He had known what the mafia entailed, having worked, and currently working on cases dealing with them and their crimes but it was starting to unravel before him the more he considered the words of Lance’s speech about there being no black or white. Especially in terms of the things that were going on behind Horner and Marko’s doors, Lando having noticed in the last two weeks that something was going on. A current of tension between the two that spilled down to the squad as orders changed and Mark was pulled from the case and put on another with Daniil.</p><p>Lando, in turn, had been honest with Lance to an extent. The other understanding that there were things the detective didn’t want to discuss yet, that despite the pull and newfound trust between them, somethings needed to be earned.</p><p>He could still remember the journey back, his hands tucked under Lance’s shirt for warmth and resting on soft muscled skin. He remembered how Lance had undone the helmet, gently pulling it from Lando’s head and telling him to keep it for their next late-night drive.</p><p>He could still feel the kiss that had been pressed to his cheek despite aching for more and how sweet and sincere Lance had been when he had said he was taking whatever this thing was at Lando’s pace, and if that meant it would be months before anything happened between them, that was fine with him.</p><p>It had been sweet and fun, freeing in way Lando hadn’t felt in a long time. The only disappointment had been Lance confirming that he was out of town for the next three weeks for work, and although he claimed it was for the legitimate side of the business, Lando knew in his gut it was illegal.</p><p>Lando hadn’t admitted it to himself, let lone Lance, that the thoughts of what he did kept him up at night. Thoughts spiralling to the point that he wondered what would happen to him if he ever became a threat to the Strolls, even an unwilling one? Lance was capable of putting down men and women he had worked with for years and considered friends. Would it be just as easy to do the same to Lando? If their relationship or whatever this is between them soured, would Lando’s family ever find his body or have closure.</p><p>The thoughts left a bitter taste in his mouth whenever they crept in, and they did often. Especially now as he stood with Kevin’s gaze on him and a text from Lance complaining about one of his business partners Mr. B, along with a little ‘x’ after a message stating he wished he were back in the city and they could take off to that diner once more.</p><p>As much as he wanted to disappear into this little bubble, Lando knew that this was a dangerous and devastating game he was playing by entertaining the attraction between them. He was aware it wasn’t just him caught in the crossfire but everyone he loved or got too close to the truth.</p><p>‘Are you done playing the role of a lovesick puppy? If so, mind taking one of these?’, Kevin deadpanned, gesturing to the cup holders and bags on the counter as the barista walked away to grab another order.</p><p>Someone behind them coughed to some their annoyance with Lando lounging around as the detective blushed, tucking his phone into his jacket pocket and hurrying to grab some of the bags, throwing a thank you to their regular guy before following Kevin onto the street. Keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the ground.</p><p>‘So, are you going to bring around this young lady or man your enamoured with and introduce them to the squad?’, Kevin smirked, nudging Lando’s shoulder with his own and sipping on his iced coffee, waiting on a reply.</p><p>‘I-, why would I…? I mean, there is no one, its um, my sister?’, Lando spluttered, focusing on not tripping over his feet and faceplanting to add to the embarrassment of the situation he was in.</p><p>‘Lando, I’m a detective. So are you. If this were an actual interrogation for a crime you’d be booked with a court date within seconds because you’re lying is awful right now’, Kevin laughed, watching the younger detective go red.</p><p>‘I want the ground to open up and swallow me right now’, Lando groaned wishing he could hide his face in his hands and cursing his nosy co-worker.</p><p>Although he knew it was coming, it didn’t make him feel any less embarrassed or uncomfortable to discuss Lance. Even if the other didn’t know who was on the other end of the phone making him smile, it was just a reminder of what he was doing behind the backs of people who obviously cared for him.</p><p>‘I promise Hulk won’t act like a protective father if you bring the round…’, Kevin teased, smiling at Lando fondly.</p><p>‘Only because you will have run an entire background check on them first’, Lando quipped back, grumbling as the precinct came into sight, people milling around in the midday sunshine.</p><p>‘So, there is a someone to run a background check on then?’, Kevin pried, stopping by one of the benches and setting his stuff down.</p><p>Lando knew he was giving him a moment to think, to decide whether he trusted him or not. It made him smile as he glanced at the ground, ignoring the way Kevin was stretching his shoulders and back next to him to give them an alibi to those around them, probably wondering why the squad nine boys were meandering outside inside of working. He knew Kevin wouldn’t be offended if he didn’t say anything. That the other knew trust was earned and had part of Lando’s issues pegged the moment he had stepped foot in the bullpen.</p><p>But he trusted Kevin, and Nico. He would even extend the trust to Mark after what the oldest of the squad had tried to protect him from with Horner and Marko. Even If he couldn’t tell them everything, he knew he could talk to Kevin and receive no judgement as long as he kept it vague.</p><p>‘There might be a someone’, Lando began, biting at his lip as he chose his words carefully, ‘It’s complicated. We aren’t a thing, but there is something there’.</p><p>Lando had expected a pat on the shoulder, and some words of encouragement. He hadn’t expected the concern and protectiveness on Kevin’s face when he glanced at him.</p><p>‘Lando, I hope whoever this is string you along for sex with the promise of something because you deserve better, and Nico will key their car for you if you ask him’, Kevin offered softly, eyes tracing over Lando’s features looking for something he wouldn’t find as Lando burst into laughter.</p><p>The image of Nico glaring down and flipping off Lance after keying his motorbike and probably drawing a penis on the body of the bike stuck in his head, as he waved his hands at Kevin in dismissal.</p><p>‘Oh god, this is why I would never bring them round, you two are worse than parents’, Lando groaned, feeling his cheeks blush as he covered his face ignoring how Kevin was laughing at him, ‘But no, he isn’t stringing me along, we’re just taking it slow. We both are dedicated to our jobs so we’re seeing how this plays out’.</p><p>Kevin nodded, glancing at Lando thoughtfully before moving to grab the bags he had set down and gesturing for the other to begin walking once more.</p><p>‘Smart, sounds like me and Nico when we began our thing’, Kevin smiled, a soft look in his eyes as they headed inside the precinct and towards the elevator, ‘I was the new detective with something to prove, and Nico tried to charm me but the job meant everything to me back then’.</p><p>His choice of words caught Lando’s attention.</p><p>The job was everything to him. Even this thing with Lance couldn’t compare to his work. He had worked too hard to get here, endured all the teasing about his height and build. Put up with overbearing partners as a beat officer. He had lived, eaten and breathed this job and his work to get to detective since he was a teenager coming back from the brink of destruction with a clear aim for the first time in years.</p><p>He had only just begun, getting to where he needed to be to achieve that goal and, in his mind, as the elevator groaned around them and he watched Kevin’s face, he couldn’t imagine a point in his life where anything would come before that.</p><p>‘Was everything? I was under the assumption we sold our souls to Marko when we signed those HR contracts’, Lando joked, lowering his voice as they stepped onto their floor.</p><p>The two of them automatically glancing down the hallway to Marko’s door as if he could scent them discussing him and appear at any moment.</p><p>‘There’s more to life than this office even if Mark and the others can’t see it Lando’, Kevin spoke softly, hand hesitating against the door to their office, ‘Sometimes you need to open your eyes and see things for what they are’.</p><p>With that cryptic message, Kevin pushed the door open, a cheer coming from Nico and Carlos as they rose from their desks stretching and grinning at the idea of coffee. They’d been pulling all nighters trying to track Fernando’s movements.</p><p>Although Lando suspected his partner was up to something more than the assigned case. He had seen the files tucked away in his back, hastily shoved into desk drawers whenever Horner approached. Carlos was working on something he didn’t trust anyone with, yet Lando knew the older would break soon.</p><p>The way he had been eyeing Lando consideringly was a change from the usual too fond gaze that made Lando just as uncomfortable as the touches the older gave him at times.</p><p>‘Lover boy has returned with coffee! Thank god, I was about to murder Mark for tapping his fingers on the desk’, Nico groaned, making grabby hands at the cup holders in Lando’s hands as Mark shot the blonde detective a quick middle finger before returning to the data on his screen.</p><p>Lando gave Mark his coffee first, just to annoy off Nico for his lover boy comment.</p><p>‘Nico, I swear to go if you bought those, I will strangle you and everyone here will help me hide your body’, Kevin hissed, making Lando turn away from where Mark smiled at him slightly as he picked up his coffee.</p><p>The source of Kevin’s annoyance was a bouquet of pink roses. The bouquet beautiful wrapped and tied with a dark red ribbon, a cream card with golden calligraphy attached by a piece of tap to the vase they had come in.</p><p>‘As if anyone would help you hide my body, right guys?’, Nico challenged, the rest of the squad not even hesitating to voice their support for Kevin who grinned at the offended German as he scoffed, ‘Okay, rude. And no I didn’t buy these, a delivery person dropped them off for a Detective Norris. Don’t worry kid, I didn’t read the card, I’m not that nosey’.</p><p>‘You didn’t read it because Mark threatened to schedule you for the night shift for three weeks and no overtime’, Daniil laughed, nudging Lando’s shoulder as he took his drink and disappeared.</p><p>Lando couldn’t hear a word anyone was saying, tuning out Nico’s bickering to approach his desk where the bouquet sat in a pretty black and gold marble design vase, and setting the last two coffees on his desk.</p><p>The rose’s smelled gorgeous, freshly picked, and well-tended to and they felt velvety against his fingertips as he touched them lightly before moving to detach the card. He tried to supress his grin, tried to convince his heart not to beat so wildly with the knowledge that Lance had probably sent them.</p><p>Flipping the car over, and spotting that familiar writing, Lando knew he was right.</p><p>It bore a simple message. ‘I wish we could get lost amongst the night again’, it read, accompanied by a lone L and little x after his name.</p><p>‘Who is L?’, Carlos asked teasingly, breaking Lando out of his little bubble of emotion that was threatening to spill.</p><p>The way Nico tensed, turning to glance at them as Lando tucked the car out of reach didn’t escape Lando’s notice. Nor did the way the detective’s fingers twitched as if reaching for a weapon.</p><p>Lando was saved from having to answer his partner’s question and from the heavy stare of Nico as the other watched him with an unnatural stillness that set off Lando’s internal alarms, as Horner appeared in the door way of his office, phone pressed to his shoulder as he beckoned at Lando and Carlos.</p><p>‘You two, grab your stuff. Body dump by Fernando’s main drug port. It’s gruesome, personal. He’s killed his second in command. I want you there yesterday’, Horner commanded as Carlos darted forward to grab the piece of paper with a location and Lando scrambled to grab everything they would need at the scene.</p><p>The flowers, Lance and the strange reaction from Nico would have to wait.</p><p>They had a body to investigate.</p><p>                                                                        *</p><p>Lance panted, unstrapping his hands, and reaching for his water bottle with one hand. Using the other pushy his sweaty hair out of his face.</p><p>Boxing had been the perfect relief after the last two frustrating weeks of negotiations with the Brazilians had dragged on past what they had expect.</p><p>The Fittipaldi’s were a well-known and respected family in the mafia world. The Stroll’s had been partnered with them for decades, aiding their shipments into Europe and across America while they helped the Strolls in return with the South American regions.</p><p>A lot of their respect came from the family’s no sex trading or trafficking approach to business which was unusual in a some of the greater mafia circles. Lance could count on one hand the number of families he had spoken to, including his own and the Buttons, that took a stance against this new wave movement from drugs and territory into human trafficking.</p><p>The Fitapaldi’s ruled their regions with a firm hand, taking apart any operations they came across and bribing who they needed to in order to protect vulnerable people from traffickers, and getting them prosecuted.</p><p>If and when the law failed, Fittipaldi had his two sons ready to step in and manually put down the heads of trafficking rings themselves. A force to be reckoned with and as nice as they were to his face, Lance would never cross them.</p><p>They could give the Ghost a run for his money with how deadly they were.</p><p>Despite his respect for them, Lance couldn’t help but want to be elsewhere instead of down in Brazil in the Family guest home. He had left Esteban behind, leaving him only with Pierre for company who seemed to be suffering just as much as Lance was, the Frenchman constantly checking his own phone and giving Lance pointed looks for smiling at his own.</p><p>Pierre had simply raised an eyebrow when he had been monitoring Lance’s e-mail and seen the conformation of delivery of roses while he was chatting to Pietro about their business dealings in Italy with the Fishichella’s and the fall of the Binotto faction that had taken place in Maranello for the last few years.</p><p>Lance had ignored his gunman’s look of amusement and disbelief, ignoring how Pietro eyed his flushed face before moving on with the conversation as Lance sipped his wine and tried not to let embarrassment overwhelm him.</p><p>He hadn’t been able to resist sending Lando flowers, thinking back to the smile on the detective’s face when he had given him the helmet for the bike. It was a shy little smile, wistful and he had a surprised look in his eyes that told Lance he wasn’t used to things being give to him without strings attached and it made him wanted to hunt down whatever was haunting the other.</p><p>Something about the detective called to his protective instincts. Lance thought it had come from his encounter with the detective at the club, watching him do things he was obviously uncomfortable doing but it had lingered since he had laid the unconscious detective carefully on the ground the first time they had met, and he had brushed those curls out of his closed eyes despite Esteban telling him to hurry up.</p><p>He wanted to know what was under that edge, under the chip the younger so clearly carried on his shoulder that made him so guarded even when he observed him with his squad members. Lance had seen flashes of the man underneath the weight of the responsibility he carried on their not dates. He had seen the other smiling and relaxed at the diner, heard him laugh into the wind as Lance sped down the highways and revved the bike to hear that delighted gasp next to his ear, to feel those hands tightening in his shirt, brushing the skin of his hips where the top had risen slightly.</p><p>Even now as he chugged his drink, feeling the weight of exhaustion press down on him due, Lance wished he was back on the couch in Lando’s apartment, buried under soft fluffy blankets and watching as whatever the other had put on Netflix cast a soft glow on the others delicate features.</p><p>He ached to be home and not survive on text messages and flower deliveries to tell the other he was thinking of him, yet here he was, alone in the gym in the guest house working out frustrations instead of wooing his detective.</p><p>‘Do you ever rest?’, an amused British accent accompanied the sound of footsteps as Lance set his drink down.</p><p>Jenson looked as young as he did when Lance had attended his wedding at the age of five, running wild in his little suit and tie with Jenson’s adopted son George as they scattered rose petals down the makeshift aisle while the other laughed.</p><p>Jenson had a timeless appearance and a handsome boyish charm that made Lance understand just how his husband had fallen for him so easily and made him want to ask his secret.</p><p>Ever since he had met Lando, Lance had wanted to reach out to the head of the Button family and ask him just how he had managed to woe a detective into marrying him despite having heard the story a million times.</p><p>‘I’ll stop when I’m dead’, Lance smirked, tossing a pair of gloves to the older man as he gestured for them, ‘Which if Alonso had his way, will be very soon’.</p><p>Jenson rolled his eyes, Lance noting the way he tensed at the mention of his once friend. That falling out had been messy and destructive. Lance had only heard tales of what had gone down between the old friends that were raised as heirs to their respective families together and had the faint memory of visiting Jenson and his husband in hospital, watching the Brit cling to his loves hand and begging him to wake up in between negotiating retaliation with Lance’s father.</p><p>Every time he saw the pale scar across Sebastian’s throat or the burns on his arms, Lance was taken back to that hospital room when the other had looked pale and broken in the hospital bed surrounded by machines breathing for him and the sound of Jenson’s desperation.</p><p>He couldn’t help but wonder, as Jenson strapped his hands before pulling on the gloves, if Lando would be as devasted if Alonso did manage a move against him.</p><p>Would the detective cry, or be relived by his possible death?</p><p>He shook his head to push the thoughts aside as Jenson glanced up, seeming to find his words.</p><p>‘Over my dead body is he getting anywhere near any of you’, Jenson all but growled as he laid into the punching bag before him with a few quick hits, Lance admiring his form and remembering just why his father had sent him to Jenson to learn hand to hand and boxing.</p><p>‘He would probably enjoy that Jenson’, Lance whistled, steadying the bag for the older man before stepping back to let him at it again.</p><p>‘No, he won’t come for me. He knows I have more capability in my pinkie finger than he has in his entire crew and I can crush him’, Jenson gritted out between blows before stopping to glance at Lance, ‘But he has threatened George, and you. And while you might not be my kid, we have always considered you and Chloe as ours, and no one touches our kids’.</p><p>Lance couldn’t help but smile.</p><p>Sebastian and Jenson had always been welcoming and soft with them when they needed it despite being deadly and firm in aiding their training. Lance had been blessed with amazing parents that cared for him and made sure he wanted for nothing, but his father had a stricter, less emotional approach in raising them to take over the family. Jenson and Sebastian had been the ones Lance turned to when he came out, when the face of his first kill haunted him and all his father offered him was a pat on the back and proud smile.</p><p>They had raised George to be critical and just as deadly as they were, but he also never lost his soft side, and Lance had seen it in how he handled his crew and his friends.</p><p>It had often left him wishing he had Jenson and Sebastian as parents in his teenage years when he went from being his father’s boy, to his son, and all conversations were on the business.</p><p>‘George is smart, and Sebastian is the deadliest thing I have ever witnessed in action asides from the Ghost. I don’t you have to worry about them, I would put money on one of them finishing Alonso’, Lance reassured, watching as Jenson stepped back and motioned for him to take to the bag.</p><p>The older corrected his form before calling out a series of jabs in quick succession, testing his skills as he used to when Lance was learning from him in the gym of the Button family home, George giggling as Sebastian led him through a series of gymnastic exercises on the beams across the room for agility practice.</p><p>‘Final blow is Sebastian’s’, Jenson admitted, grinning at Lance from behind the bag as he caught it, ‘Chloe has already been warned that if Alonso is taken by surprise with ye that his is ours, and Seb gets to deliver that final blow’.</p><p>‘Fair is fair, I’m sure Seb has a detailed list of things he will do to him before he kills him’, Lance grinned, mind running wild with some ideas to pass to the older man in case he wanted Alonso to truly suffer.</p><p>The lighter had worked wonders on burning Alonso’s mark off of Jev. The idea of Sebastian grinning and triumphant as he burned Alonso’s own mark off his chest slowly, repaying him for everything he had done to Sebastian all those years ago held a poetic justice that made the sick part of Lance shiver with delight.</p><p>Maybe he would tell Sebastian to use Esteban’s favourite trick, cutting tiny shallow cuts all across a person’s fingers. Only deep enough to sting and split anytime they curled their hands in pain, and oh how people screamed when Esteban forced their hands into salt water.</p><p>It was effective and simple, time consuming and torturous, a trick they had deployed multiple times.</p><p>‘I heard from Daniel that Alonso has something going on with Marko again? Something about a murder cover up, made the death look like a suicide and drug addiction. Any idea why it’s been dug up?’, Jenson questioned, brushing sweat from his forehead with a towel before downing a bottle of water.</p><p>Lance shook his head, unstrapping his hands once more and reaching for his own water.</p><p>The question had plagued him for weeks since Max and Daniel had brought it to them. The couple were still digging, trying to figure out the link between the case and everything happening with Alonso, but Marko trusted no one. Not even Max despite having worked with his father previously before his death.</p><p>‘I have no clue, I don’t think its related entirely to Alonso’s power plays’, Lance eventually offered as Jenson watched him, ‘I think Alonso is only using Marko as reassurance. Possibly he’s plotting something big and needs to ensure the police, especially Marko’s little pet squad, don’t get involved to fuck it up’.</p><p>‘Webber would love a chance to get involved in this, especially if it meant taking Sebastian down, which I can see fucking up whatever shit Alonso has planned, best to keep his squad out of the way’, Jenson agreed, eyes flickering over the room before settling outside where the sun was setting.</p><p>‘You know there is a chance not all of us make it out of this one’, Jenson spoke softly, eyes still fixed out the window but meddling with the ring on his finger, ‘It’s him or us, and while we play fair, he will play dirty. So, whoever is making you smile more than I have ever seen since you were a little boy, cut them loose Lance. You don’t want their blood on your hands’.</p><p>Lance felt his veins turn to ice, freezing on the spot at the unexpected words.</p><p>He had noticed the looks Jenson had been giving him, the teasing glint in his eye and the words on his tongue but Lance had avoided the conversation. Yet this was never how he imagined it going.</p><p>‘There’s nothing going on, only I am at risk in this’, Lance spoke firmly, clenching his jaw and trying to push his emotions down as his father had taught him.</p><p>Getting angry never solved any problems, being smart and calculated did.</p><p>‘If I can figure out that you are sneaking around with newly appointed Detective Lando Norris, then so can Alonso. And don’t you think for a second that Marko would hesitate in handing over one of his men if it meant getting whatever he wanted from Alonso’, Jenson shrugged, eyes returning to fix Lance with a sympathetic look.</p><p>And Lance felt lost.</p><p>Part of him knew that Jenson was right. That with things escalating, any distractions would lead to heartbreak or death. The thought of anything happening to Lando like it had Sebastian all those years ago made him sick, his stomach revolting at the idea of the little detective ending up a pawn in this brewing war.</p><p>Yet part of him wanted to be selfish. It wouldn’t to tuck Lando close and swear that he would never let anything hurt him. He wanted this secret, this person that was just his and untainted by the world Lance lived in despite knowing he was ruining the other every time they met.</p><p>That simply knowing Lance had painted a target on his back from multiple enemies out to cripple Lance to bring down his family’s legacy.</p><p>He wanted to respond to Jenson, to ask him for help in protecting Lando. He wanted to cut a deal his sister and Esteban would never make but Jenson would understand.</p><p>That if it came down to him or Lando, Lando would be the priority.</p><p>Yet as he opened his mouth to speak, a shocked Pierre rounded the corner, almost skidding with the speed at which he was moving as he strode towards Lance with a phone in hand, gesturing for him to take it.</p><p>Lance didn’t even get a brief hello past his lips when Esteban was already talking.</p><p>‘Lance…he got Jev. Alonso got Jev from us and he’s dead Lance. Jev is fucking dead’.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hey everyone!</p><p>Sorry for delay. As I said things are gonna slow down for a bit, I have like three giant deadlines for my MA within the next four weeks that need my attention.</p><p>Thank you for all the lovely comments and thoughtful messages about my family emergency too. Everything is fine now, it was a bit scary but the worst never came and everything is returning to normal now!</p><p>Jenson has finally landed &lt;3 I might do a little story after this one about Seb and Jensons backstory because the one I have for them is just amazing.</p><p>Leave a comment yelling at me for being so evil! Or if you just enjoy morally corrupt Lance and Kevin being all big bro to Lando!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>TW - descriptions of stabbing, cutting, finger removal and blood</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lance let his anger take over as he stared at the hardened criminal before him.</p><p>Even with blood running down his face, one eye swollen shut and missing a few teeth, Frank was as stoic as ever. Refusing to drop his gaze from his one open eye from Lance, a smirk tugging on his split bloody lips and licking the blood from them as he waited for Lance’s next move.</p><p>The fucker even went as far as to tap his fingers against the arm of the chair his wrists were bound to,</p><p>The sound irritating his last remaining shred of patience now that he had sent Esteban out of the room, the other having tried to stop him when he had begun to pull the fingernails off of Frank’s right hand, demanding information on where Alonso was hiding.</p><p>Lance had cut his visit with the Fittipaldi’s short, leaving Jenson behind with the information of Jev’s murder to show the Brazilian crime family just how much of a threat Alonso was. The Brit having destroyed the punching bag in the guest house gym. Jev had been raised with Alonso and Jenson, losing the other to Alonso when they fell out had hurt Jenson more than Alonso’s betrayal.</p><p>Lance’s knuckle’s ached, skin torn and bruised from trying to wipe that smug smile off his face as he had sat there, telling Lance every little thing he had done to Jev. How Jev had begged, how he had cried for his family thinking Alonso had them, and that he would behave if they let his family go.</p><p>Jev had died not knowing that Chloe had smuggled his family out of the country and set them up with new ID’s and that they had been waiting for him in France.</p><p>Lance had been the one to make the call, Jev’s wife answering with a solemn ‘he’s gone, isn’t he?’ before Lance could even get the courage to say the words. Her resigned tone and the sobs of their children in the background begging for the father to come home had lit a rage in Lance.</p><p>These children would never see their father again. Never hear his voice. All because Alonso couldn’t let things go. If Alonso had stuck to his territory, then Jev wouldn’t have reached out to Lance for protection. He would still be alive to watch his children grow up.</p><p>Now, Jev rested in a city morgue where his limbs would have to be reassembled and parts were still being found across the river shore.</p><p>As far as Lance had heard from information gathered from the pub they had invested in, Jev’s right leg and left arm had yet to be found.</p><p>‘Are you going to do something, or does Daddy need to give you person to wipe your nose too?’, Frank spat blood on the floor, grinning and letting it dribble down his chin.</p><p>He disgusted Lance.</p><p>‘Oh Frank, no nobody holds me on leash’, Lance chuckled, low and dangerous, smirking as his tongue darted out to wet his lips as he circled behind the other.</p><p>Lance fisted a hand in Frank’s hair, yanking his head backwards, and whispering is his ear, letting Frank feel his warm breath and smirk against his ear.</p><p>‘Unlike you, Frank. Just where does Alonso stash those balls of yours? Because we all know he’s a jealous bastard who holds you all by your balls’, Lance chuckled, sliding his knife out of his pocket, and flicking the blad up as he reached around to run it along the inside of Franks thigh till the blade was pointed at his dick, ‘Surely you have no use for this? You wouldn’t mind if I cut it off? After all, what use is it without your balls Frank’.</p><p>For the first time that evening, Frank flinched. Only a small movement as his thighs tensed and pelvis tried to jerk away from the blade of the knife, but Lance just smirked. Pressing it closer until he heard fabric rip and Frank’s breath stutter.</p><p>‘You wouldn’t’, Frank tried to sound sure, but the uncertainty and hint of fear in his voice was like a drop of blood in the water.</p><p>And Lance was the shark, driving the blade forward until it met resistance and then he stabbed forward. Frank screamed, pulling against the binds and Lance’s hold as he cried, hips jerking to dislodge the knife but Lance held it firm. Twisting it to maximize the pain the other felt.</p><p>Lance smiled, closing his eyes at the creams and sobs.</p><p>It was what Frank deserved. Lance wanted his last waking moments to be filled with pain and suffering. For him to know how worthless he was not only to Lance as a human being and to his crew that wouldn’t come looking for him.</p><p>Lance knew that Alonso had only come for Jev out of anger, not a need to keep him close.</p><p>But Frank? Frank was the dirt on Alonso’s shoe, and he wouldn’t be looking for him any time soon. There were a million guys just like Frank in their world; cruel and willing to do anything for money. No one would miss him.</p><p>Frank whimpered, eyes closed and chest heaving as he cried as Lance twisted the knife left and right sharply before letting go, letting it stay lodged in whatever it had managed to pierce.</p><p>He didn’t want to risk removing it and letting Frank bleed to death before he was finished with him.</p><p>Instead, he walked away, humming to himself as he stopped in front of the desk where Esteban had laid out all his favourite tools for Lance before leaving him alone with Frank. The pliers glistening with still drying blood from when he pulled his fingers nails out.</p><p>‘I’ll tell you what you what, just…. just let me go to a hospital’, Frank begged, sounding delirious from the pain as he stuttered through his sentences.</p><p>‘Oh Frank, I can’t do that’, Lance laughed, feeling something break free within him as he settled into that dark place, the place that was trained to torture and kill with little remorse.</p><p>He picked up the hammer, testing the weight of it in his hands before placing it down on the table once more as an idea hit him.</p><p>Instead of bringing the tools to Frank, Lance could simply bring Frank to the tools and cause him more pain.</p><p>He circled back behind the chair before beginning to push it forward. The legs catching on the uneven concrete flooring, requiring force that made Frank’s body jerk and the knife shift.</p><p>Each cry of pain sent a thrill down Lance’s spine, knowing that he was doing what was right. That he was making him suffer for everything he had done to Jev. The pain he had caused and the damage he had done to the Stroll’s reputation by murdering someone under their protection, weakening their strength in the eyes of the vultures that looked on to take them down at the first sign of falter.</p><p>The movement came to an end as he tucked the chair under the table.</p><p>Lance pushed the tools to one side before untying one of Frank’s hands, letting his nails dig into the chaffed wrist as he pulled it to the table before picking up the hammer once more and before the other could protest, bringing it down onto his hand.</p><p>The screaming drowned out the sound of breaking bones as Lance sung again, holding the hand in place and catching Franks four fingers with blow.</p><p>Next, he grabbed butchers’ knife from the opposite end of the table and set it beside the mangled hand before pulling his phone from his pocket an dialling Esteban’s number. The conversation was short and sweet, just a request for a bucket of ice before the phone was stashed back in his pockets.</p><p>Lance ignored the notifications from Lando once more. Thoughts of the detective had no place in Lance’s mind right now.</p><p>‘Please…’ Frank croaked, ‘I…. I can give…give you information on what he is doing with Marko, on the hits he is arranging…please’.</p><p>‘I have no use for you or your information, you are only good to me dead’, Lance sighed, lifting the butcher’s knife once more and checking the blade, ‘Your information won’t give two little girls their father back, you fucked with someone under my protection Frank. We don’t do forgiveness here, we do death’.</p><p>Lance ignored the bead of blood on his fingertip from where the blade had bitten into his fingertip.</p><p>His pain was nothing compared to what Jev and his family suffered.</p><p>The door creaked open as Oscar held the door for Esteban, his face devoid of his usual joy as he surveyed what Lance was doing and nodded at his boss before ducking back outside.</p><p>Oscar had one of the last ones to see Jev alive.</p><p>Esteban set the basin on ice on the table, eyes sharp as they surveyed Lance, a frown tugging at his lips from whatever he had found but his friend said nothing. He simple moved to the corner of the room, watching, and waiting for when Lance needed him.</p><p>‘This is for Jev’, Lance whispered menacingly as he grabbed Frank’s wrist once more, holding it down and wielding the knife in his other hand. One by one, he cut Frank’s fingers off from the first knuckle before nodding at Esteban to take over, the other sticking Franks bleeding, fingerless hand into the ice.</p><p>Frank trashed as he screamed and sobbed, sweat mixing with the blood on his face and eyes wild with pain, begging Lance to stop.</p><p>Instead, Lance moved to his other hand. Repeating the process but swinging the butcher’s knife down on four fingers at once. Severing them and giving Frank no reprieve from the pain before Esteban shoved the second hand in the ice, zip tying his hands together, but they knew Frank was going nowhere.</p><p>‘Now, you’re going to tell us everything, and if you do behave, I’ll make your death quick’, Lance promised, brushing the sweaty hair from Frank’s forehead as delirious eyes met his, ‘If you give us information we already know, I will make this slow and as painful as possible, okay?’.</p><p>Frank nodded tiredly, head drooping forward, and eyes closed in pain as Lance rested a hand on the back of his neck, avoiding Esteban’s gaze as his phone buzzed in his pocket once more as Frank began to talk.</p><p>Most of it, Lance already knew. It was information that they had gather through Charles or Max and Daniel. Charles having spent time with Jev in the clubs before he turned to the Strolls, spilling intimate secrets and dealings to the honey pot while Charles sympathised with him. Max and Daniel had simply fed them any information given to them by Fernando and Marko, Max even drawing detailed maps of meeting places that they hadn’t known Fernando possessed.</p><p>It was useless information, none of it bringing them closer to understanding Fernando’s motivations or why Marko was looking into a cold case.</p><p>‘Time’s running out Frank’, Lance threatened, nodding to Esteban who hummed as he began to examine his knives threateningly, ‘I’m still waiting for you to give me something I want’.</p><p>‘Wait, wait please’, Frank winced, voice raw and broken, ‘Marko is taking….taking out a hit on some of his detectives. Horris? Magnus? I’m not sure of the name. I just know they have a way to take this hit out and tie it to your or the Buttons. Marko gets rid of his problem, and Alonso gets to take down one of your family’s and take your territory’.</p><p>Esteban shot him a sharp glance, Lance automatically freezing at the name that sounded too close to the one of the detective currently messaging him. The one whose smile made Lance feel as if the world could be a better place, that there was a light to all this darkness and a purpose to everything despite it all.</p><p>‘Why?’, Esteban questioned as Lance turned away, taking a moment to control himself.</p><p>Thoughts of Lando had no place in a place like this. A little voice in his head going even further, whispering back that a person like Lando had no place with a murderer like Lance.</p><p>‘Marko…Marko thinks that they’re running an op against him. Someone’s digging in cases that he covered up or are tied to his illegal activities with Alonso. He’s narrowed it down to his elite squad, he’s going to take out a hit or set them up for an op gone wrong. Maybe both’, Frank’s teeth were chattering, eyes rolling slightly as waves of pain hit him repeatedly, ‘Whoever is digging is getting too close to things that would get Marko taken down and imprisoned for the rest of his miserable life’.</p><p>Lance took a deep breath, shoving everything down.</p><p>It was a problem for another time. Getting rid of Frank, arranging a hit on Alonso had to come first. He knew, as Esteban watched his movements, eyes sharp on him, that this was a tes the had to pass.</p><p>Jenson had warned him that Lando would be a weakness, and now, in the face of this information with his second watching him, waiting to see how Lance played his hand, he had to flip that switch his father had thought him about. The one that put the family first.</p><p>As he grabbed the back of the chair, turning Frank back towards him, Lance had made his choice.</p><p>Family first.</p><p>‘Thank you’, Lance spoke softly, brushing the matted hair from Frank’s forehead and gazing into his eyes.</p><p>Even clouded with pain, hands dripping blood and water on the floor from where his fingers should be, Frank had even wit to be scared.</p><p>Lance brushed a finger along the criminal’s cheekbone, collecting a tear that had escaped and making a shushing noise when Frank whimpered.</p><p>Esteban approached slowly, holding a gun in one hand. A knife in the other.</p><p>‘Close your eyes Frank, it’ll be over soon’, he soothed as he removed his hand from his face, taking the offered knife and testing the weight.</p><p>They both knew Lance had lied about making this quick.</p><p>He took his time with Frank. Encouraging the other to relax, to keep those eyes closed as he made more shallow cuts along his arm and face before driving the knife into Frank’s stomach, twisting it as he pulled it back out before eventually taking pity on the barely conscious man and driving it up through his ribcage until blood bubbled from his lips and he went limp.</p><p>Esteban didn’t say a word as Lance dropped the knife to the floor, his body already carrying him from the room as he spoke softly.</p><p>‘Get Oscar on clean up. Pierre can do disposal. I want you to get Dan and Max to Chloe’s, tell them everything. I’ll be there once I’ve cleaned up’.</p><p>His own words sounded hollow to his ears as he left the basement room and Frank’s corpses behind. Not caring about the blood that was dripping from him as he made his way through the corridor, up the stairs to the where he had repurposed one of the coroners into an office with an en-suite bathroom. The floors a dark wood so he never saw the stains.</p><p>His hands left bloody marks on the doorknobs that Oscar and the crew would take care of, not that anyone would ever get far enough into this part of the building to see Lance’s office.</p><p>He washed his hands first, watching as rusty brown water swirled and disappeared down the drain. Massaging the blood from the creases of his knuckles, but the stains in his nail beds hung on. A reminder that no matter how clean and polished he looked; Lance would always be stained.</p><p>His phone buzzed in his pocket, breaking through the trance as the water ran clean.</p><p>Lance wiped his hands on the hand towel beside the sink, ignoring the smudge of blood he left on the white material before his phone from his pocket. His heart sinking as a new text from Lando appeared on the screen.</p><p>‘Hey, I don’t know when you are getting back or how things are going. They must be bad if you’re still wherever you are. I just…I miss you and our late-night talks. Let me know when you’re free….I found a little Italian place you’ll like’.</p><p>Lance clenched his hand around his phone until the screen went dark, message disappear as he ignored the clenching in his chest, the burn in his eyes.</p><p>Shoving the phone in his pocket, he stumbled forward, hands gripping the sink as he tried to keep everything in that little box in the back of his mind. Shoving Jev’s death away from his thoughts, squashing all thoughts of curling up with Lando to watch a movie the younger insists he needs to see, pushing away the noises Frank had made when he had stabbed him for that last time.</p><p>He tried to breath. Tried to reassure himself he had done what he needed to, that it was the right move to take Frank out of the game, crippling part of Alonso’s crew. That the murder was justified.</p><p>It had been a long time since he had struggled with killing. The first being his first kill when the warm blood on his hands and skin made him throw up, his father looking at him with disappointment as he trembled. The stains on his fingernails haunting him for weeks.</p><p>Yet now, as Lance opened his eyes to stare in the mirror; the person staring back at him was someone he didn’t recognise.</p><p>Eyes dark and wild. Blood splattered across his cheeks and drying in his slicked back hair. His shirt a mess of blood splatters, and even though Lance didn’t want it to be there, a slight satisfied look in his eyes and tilt to his lips.</p><p>The voice in the back of his head was back as he felt his phone give another soft buzz in his pocket.</p><p>‘How could someone like him ever love a monster like you?’.</p><p>Lance didn’t have an answer to his own question. Instead stripping, shoving his clothes into a bag for Oscar to destroy in the incinerator with Franks body.</p><p>Before entering the shower, he picked up his phone one last time. Thumb hovering uncertainly above the thread of texts, the latest a picture of Lando in his car wearing the hoodie Lance had wrapped around him when he was cold and had left at the Detective’s.</p><p>He stared at the others face for a moment, swallowing the lump in his throat and deleting the messages.</p><p>Not even the warmth of the wat he stood under could wash away the feeling of resignation that settled in his bones.</p><p>The family came first.</p><p>                                                            *</p><p>Lando hated this feeling.</p><p>It felt as if there were a thousand ants crawling all over his skin, trampling through his mind and making his thoughts fuzzy. Distracting him from the job at hand, from reviewing reports from the coroner and crime scene analysists. Making him tug at the sleeves of his shirt, chew on the cap of his pen and fiddle with his badge that was clipped to his belt.</p><p>Carlos had been throwing him worried looks. The other detective for once giving him space, not engaging with him physically and instead bringing him tea instead of coffee and asking him opinions on things in a way that Lando knew the other Detective was picking up on his anxiety.</p><p>Lando, despite his anxiety, was actually finding it easier to get along with his partner like this.</p><p>Carlos was more focused on work than mentoring him. He had stopped treating Lando as a child and stopped with all the physical contact and had started treating him as an equal.</p><p>Although Lando knew that was probably due to him hitting every target dead centre in the gun range during the week when they had their training course with the Squad.</p><p>None of them had expected him to be so deadly with his weapon. Even Mark had looked surprised when he hit even the moving targets dead centre as the instructor called out the points to hit. They had all thought of him as the rookie, the green kid that was being thrust into a squad beyond his capabilities. Even Kevin and Nico, who believed and supported him, thought it just a little. Lando had seen on their faces from time to time.</p><p>He knew what he looked like physically. Small and lithe, anxious, and shy. And he was, but he had yet to show them exactly what he was capable of.</p><p>However, staring at his unanswered messages, waiting for a reply that never came, part of Lando swore they may see it soon when the anxiety melted into anger.</p><p>Part of him was worried, knowing that when Lance left, pressing a soft kiss to his forehead and leaving Lando wishing he were daring enough to pull the other into an actual kiss, that he was heading off on family business. Even if the other said it was for the Stroll’s legitimate business, Lando had noticed the tension in Lance’s shoulders, the circles under his eyes, the people trailing Lance on their last two not-dates.</p><p>The murder case they were working only made him worry more. The victim had been a right-hand man for the Alonso family. His death gruesome, a warning. Something was happening between the mafia families in this city and whatever it was, Lance was in the middle of it. Clearly a target or in danger to the point he had men tailing him for protection.</p><p>It hadn’t taken much for Lando to put two and two together. A business trip to Brazil probably meant dealings with the Fittipaldi’s, highlighting that whatever was happening was serious enough for the Strolls to seek outside support.</p><p>Thus, making Lando worry when Lance stopped responding to his text over a week. His phone silent and teasing. The voice in his head telling him he had chased the other away by being clingy and needy. That distance had probably made Lance realise Lando would never fit his lifestyle, that he wasn’t worth the pain or the fall out that could occur from dating a Detective. Maybe he had even found someone more attractive, more like that man Lance had sent to scout him out at the bar.</p><p>These thoughts ran rampant in through his mind as he stared at the report before him.</p><p>He preferred these thoughts to the others. The ones that whispered that Lance wasn’t replying because whatever deal he was gone making went wrong. That his phone was lying at the bottom of the ocean somewhere along with his corpse. That the last time he has seen him, held him, wished he had kissed him goodbye, was the last thoughts Lance would ever have of him.</p><p>Those thoughts kept him up at night as he sat wrapped in a hoodie that smelled of expensive cologne and gasoline as he tried to distract himself.</p><p>Nothing worked, not when with each ignored message the second option become more and more likely.</p><p>‘Hey, stop staring at that thing as if its going to kill you’, Carlos joked, reaching across to poke him in the temple with a pen.</p><p>The poke startled Lando out of his stupor, making him offer the older detective a shy apologetic smile while rubbing the back of his neck and uttering an apology as he shover his phone in his desk drawer. Sick of watching and watching.</p><p>‘Trouble in paradise?’, the older asked softly, voice dropped and eyes flitting to where Lando could feel Nico watching them.</p><p>Lando shrugged, grabbing a file off his desk, and holding it across the divide, nodding at Carlos to gaze at it. If they looked like they were working, it wouldn’t alert Nico and Kevin to how distracted Lando was.</p><p>The other two had been out on assignment the last few days, missing the lead up to the anxious mess that he was now. He couldn’t bare seeing the sympathetic look in Kevin’s eyes after discussing Lance with him only weeks before, sharing his hopes for the relationship that now looked like it had ended without even a goodbye.</p><p>‘Pretty sure I’ve been ghosted, but its whatever’, Lando whispered back, pointing his pen at a line of the report as Carlos nodded along.</p><p>‘I’m sorry cabron’, Carlos offered, tapping his pen off Lando’s, but there was no sympathy in his gaze, ‘That sucks, but it is whatever. They don’t know what they’re missing’.</p><p>Lando smiled back at him, relieved that there was no heart to hear. No you can do better or pep talks, just acknowledgment that it did suck.</p><p>‘Not going to offer to beat him up, partner?’, Lando teased, letting his walls fall for the first time slightly with the older detective.</p><p>Carlos smiled back brightly, a knowing glint in his eyes that let Lando know he knew the other was teasing him. That Lando was finally letting Carlos into his little bubble instead of keeping things strictly professional as he had been since he had joined the squad almost three months ago.</p><p>‘Oh no, cabron’, Carlos gave him a pointed look before his gaze landed on Lando’s gun pointedly, ‘After last week I do not think you would need anyone’s help’.</p><p>The compliment made him smile. Part of him feeling acknowledged by the admission. Not many people thought he could handle himself, and only weeks ago when he had been injured on the raid, Carlos was one of them. Hearing that that opinion had changed made him feel as if he was showing growth, settling into the squad despite his uncertainties.</p><p>He wanted to say something back, getting ready to do so when a soft voice called out from the doorway. A figure standing just inside the door to their division, sunglasses in hand and gazing over at where Lando sat.</p><p>A figure Lando recognised, a shiver running down his spine as the man before him offered him a small smile.</p><p>Charles may have been sinful that night they kissed in the nightclub when Lando had teased him about Lance, but in the daylight, he was simply elegant and beautiful.  Making Lando feel underdressed in his casual office attire.</p><p>The other man stood in a white long sleeved off the shoulder top that dipped in a v between his pecs. Showing off his delicate collarbone, smooth chest, and pale skin. His legs were encased in skin-tight black leather jeans that seemed more classy than leather on a man usually seemed.</p><p>Lando could see Carlos staring in disbelief from the corner of his eyes. Daniil was flushed a bright pink where he was standing near the door, unable to react to the beautiful man before him.</p><p>Even Mark was distracted for a moment, eyes glancing over Charles before glancing back at his work.</p><p>‘Sorry to intrude, I was um, I’m here about…’, Charles looked away as he spoke, his bottom lip trembling and shoulders shaking softly, ‘I’m here about Jean-Eric Vergne, I….I was one of the last people to…to see him alive’.</p><p>Lando watched in amazement as a single tear rolled delicately down Charles’s perfectly made face, his hand trembling as he went to brush it off.</p><p>‘Yes, of course’, Carlos spoke gently, standing and making his way over to Charles, offering him a tissue, ‘We weren’t expecting you till this afternoon, but no worries, Detective Norris and I can talk your statements now’.</p><p>Charles shot Lando a small glance as he dabbed at his eyes, nodding at Carlos’s words.</p><p>It was a look that spoke volumes. A warning to not mention that they had met and who connected him. And although Lando owed the other man nothing, he gave a tiny nod, acknowledging the question in those green eyes.</p><p>‘Of course, Mr….Leclerc is it?’, Lando cleared his throat, standing and ignoring his internal monologue that was collapsing into chaos over a member of Lance’s crew being in his place of work, ‘Carlos can fetch you some water while I get you settled in one of our interrogation rooms’.</p><p>Charles let out a little gasp, a little whimper as he shrunk in on himself, looking around with wide eyes that made both Daniil and Carlos seem to want to comfort the other.</p><p>‘Am I….Am I in trouble?’, Charles’s bottom lip wobbled before he covered it with the tissue and his hand.</p><p>‘No, no, don’t worry. It’s just protocol that we have to use there’, Carlos reassured, touching the others bare shoulder briefly, ‘Detective Norris will show you were to go and read you in on the process while I get you some water’.</p><p>Charles nodded, offering Carlos a small smile before walking towards Lando.</p><p>Lando waited until the other man was next to him before beginning to lead him away from the bullpen and down the hallway towards the interrogation rooms. The two of the walking in releitive silence except from the occasional sniffle from Charles.</p><p>Lando paused as the reached the room, pretending to fiddle with his keys. Knowing that if anyone watched the tapes, it would just seem as if the rookie was struggling to remember which key to use.</p><p>‘Say nothing, just nod in agreement, okay?’, Lando’s whisper was barely heard over the jingle of the keys as he fumbled before sliding into the lock, ‘I don’t know you, I don’t know Lance, and we keep his name out of this’.</p><p>Charles paused for a moment, sniffling before nodding as Lando opened the door, gesturing him into the room. He settled into the chair across the table from Charles, checking the tape recorder and flipping it to on before running through Charles’s rights and the reasons why he was here until Carlos re-joined them.</p><p>The older detective sitting in the chair beside Charles and taking over the interview once doubling checking Charles understood everything Lando had gone over with him.</p><p>Once the other man had nodded, the interrogation had begun. Although Carlos took a gentle approach, clearly knowing from Charles’s demeanour that he simply wasn’t capable of the violence that had ended Jean-Eric Vergne’s life.</p><p>Even Lando had to admit that much, although begrudgingly to himself. Charles might be playing his partner like a fiddle with his tears and stuttering, his pouted lips and shaking hands, but Lando knew it was partly an act. That despite the real sadness that tinged Charles’s gaze as he went over his last meeting with Jean-Eriv Vergne, the other was simply using his skills to make sure no one dug further into him than seeing the simple university student working as a companion to the lonely to pay his bills.</p><p>Even the company Lando assumed was a fake set up by the Strolls as cover for Charles’s role in their family was as solid as Charles’s acting.</p><p>The other had taken them in detail through his meetings with the deceased. Highlighting that Jean-Eric had been afraid of his boss, and although Charles played dumb, Carlos shot him a look that this confirmed their working theory that Jean-Eric had been killed viciously and publicly for defecting from Alonso. His little drips of information that he pretended to not have understood helped in building their case, despite the fact Charles insisted that he had no clue who Jean-Eric worked for, that he simply thought he was a businessman.</p><p>Lando had to admit as he watched Charles twist reality and use his body to manipulate the story to fit his cover, that the man was talented at his job and probably one of Lance’s most trust and useful members of his inner circle.</p><p>The thought of Lance made Lando clench his fist, swallowing tightly and looking at the tap recorder. Ignoring the worried glance from Carlos and curious one from Charles.</p><p>The interview finished quickly after that, Carlos thanking Charles for coming in and taking the tape recorder with him. Reassuring the other that Lando would walk him back to his car as Charles seemed distressed as he continued to dab at his eyes gently.</p><p>They didn’t speak as they headed towards the elevator, Lando holding the doors open for Charles and nodding at Kevin who was exiting as they got into the lift.</p><p>He could see Charles glancing at the camera in the corner of the elevator, eyeing it up as if debating saying something as Lando hit the button for the garage.</p><p>‘Surveillance only, no audio’, Lando muttered, rolling his eyes when Charles gave him a look that said he didn’t believe him, ‘If I wanted to entrap you Charles, I would have called bullshit during your play dumb routine, but I didn’t. We both know I’m compromised’.</p><p>Charles sniffled one last time, tears seeming to slow to a stop as he brushed the last of them away and checked his mascara in the reflective surfaces subtly.</p><p>‘I suppose that is true’, Charles hummed, glancing at him again as if contemplating something, ‘Thank you’.</p><p>Lando cast him a quick glance and eyebrow raise, waiting for the other to elaborate.</p><p>‘For not ratting me out, for protecting Lance’, Charles stated plainly, clenching the tissue in his hand.</p><p>‘Who says I wasn’t protecting myself?’, Lando muttered, eyes watching the floor numbers scroll by slowly.</p><p>‘Please, we both know that’s a lie’, Charles rolled his eyes, small smirk on his lips.</p><p>Lando didn’t comment. The other was right. They both knew it. Even if he wanted to cling to the idea, he was protecting himself and his job, not the second boss of a powerful mafia family.</p><p>‘Have you seen him since he got home? We thought he was running off to see you the last few nights, so is that where he has been hiding from us? He isn’t at his usual haunts so our only other option was that he was with you’, Charles asked curiously, a hint of worry in his voice as his gaze slid over to Lando.</p><p>Lando stared at the floor, feeling humiliation burn behind his eyes and his chest clench painfully at the innocent question because no. He had not seen Lance. He hadn’t even known he was back in the city, let alone disappearing enough to worry his friends.</p><p>‘I didn’t even know he was back. Guess I was right about him having found someone else’, his voice sounded hollow even to his own ears.</p><p>He avoided Charles’s gaze. Gone was the curiosity, replaced with a soft almost caring and worried expression. One that was directed towards Lando as the Monegasque man reached for him slightly.</p><p>The elevator doors dinging open, revealing a handsome man dressed well waiting. His stern face melting into a smile at the sight of Charles, holding a hand out to him softly.</p><p>Charles went to take it, his own eyes softening as he took in the other man. Relaxing for the first time since Lando had met him in that club all those weeks agon, and his chest ached because he thought he might have had the relationship these two seemed to have as they stood having a silent conversation.</p><p>‘Thank you for coming in Mr. Leclerc, if we need you, we will get in touch’, Lando cleared his throat, wanting to escape this moment and go lick his own wounds.</p><p>‘Lando..’, Charles turned back towards him as if he wanted to say something more, to comfort him somehow but Lando just shrugged.</p><p>‘Tell our mutual friend to lose my number, I think it’s the least he can do’, Lando laughed weakly as the doors began to slide closed, cutting off whatever else Charles had moved to say.</p><p>In the quite of the elevator, he wrapped his arms around himself, allowing a moment of weakness as he blinked back tears.</p><p>He had known this would end in pain. He had just assumed it would be physical when this thing between them blew up, not the deep ache in his chest and the urge to grieve what could have been. Despite knowing he was chasing a fool’s dream, Lando had believed there was someway that his thing could work between them, but maybe it was for the best.</p><p>After he was a detective, someone who was paid to arrest those like Lance. He had gotten into this career to chase the ghost of someone like Lance who had no problem ruining lives for profit or family pride. Chasing Lance was betraying the memory of everything that had driven him to this point in his life.</p><p>So, he let go.</p><p>As he stepped off the elevator, feeling the weight of the revelation that Lance had so clearly moved on and tired of him, he promised himself he would have tonight to grieve and then he was done.</p><p>Lando had spent his life chasing ghosts. He wasn’t going to let this one derail him further he promised himself as he made his way back to his desk. Pulling his phone out of his drawer.</p><p>No new messages.</p><p>He deleted the number that teased him before setting it down on his desk, sighing.</p><p>A hand landed gently on his shoulder. Carlos’s brown eyes worried as he gazed at his partner, question on his tongue.</p><p>Lando just offered him a weak smile, shrugging his shoulders, and allowing himself to take strength from the strange comfort he was getting from the others touch for once.</p><p>‘Hey, let’s go out tomorrow. Shifts nearly over and you look tired, but we are off early tomorrow so, how about you, me, and some drinks, I know a place’, Carlos offered gently, his thumb pressing into Lando’s collarbone.</p><p>Usually, he would say no and shy away from the other, but not today.</p><p>Today he offered his partner a smile, touching his own fingers to Carlos’s and not noticing the alarmed and worried looks exchanged by Kevin and Nico to their left as he nodded in agreement.</p><p>‘Yeah, that sounds great actually. It’s a date'</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I offer you this!</p><p>I am finished classes next week and have finally gotten time to finish this chapter. Still might be slow going because of working on my thesis but I didn't want to leave you guys hanging for too long!</p><p>Also if you want a glimpse at some other characters that I may not get to bring into this story, I have a prompt collection called Little Books of Us, and the 7th chapter gives a glimpse at George and Alex's role and relationship in this universe and is set between chapter six and seven of this story!</p><p>I hope you are all good and doing well.</p><p>Drop a kudos or comment or come scream at me on tumblr at f1-disaster-bi!</p><p>Love you guys, thank you for all the support &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm back, this time with a chaptered mafia au that has been a while in the planning!</p><p>Hoping to update once a week....but that depends on my MA work.</p><p>Please leave comments, they encourage me to write!</p><p>Hope you are all safe and healthy!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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